Standards, Assessments, and Employability Skills

Executive Summary 

The need to define and measure employability skills has become increasingly important. Business and industry representatives are concerned by the lack of foundation skills in job applicants.  The ability to assess employability skills has become a national priority, as reflected in federal government initiatives since 1998.  While schools and workplaces are the most likely venues to measure academic and vocational skills, respectively, a variety of organizations have taken on the task of measuring employability skills.  It is possible to measure these skills through written or computer-based tests or through performance during a long-term project or in a contest simulation.  

One such organization is SkillsUSA–VICA, an education association—working in partnership with industry—dedicated to teaching employability skills in public career and technical education programs.  For thirty-six years, SkillsUSA has developed materials and activities for instructors to teach employability skills and to evaluate outcomes.  

Introduction 

Everyone agrees that it is easy to test for basic math skills in elementary school.  Either a student knows or does not know basic facts, such as 12 plus 3 equals 15.  Education scholars have spent decades designing tests of academic competencies at every level.  Similarly there are methods for determining whether a person has certain technical skills, or skills required to do a particular kind of work.  We can measure how well an auto mechanic can remove, repair, balance, and re-install an automobile tire.  But measurement becomes more complex as the topics become more complex and when the “correct” answers are not as discretely defined.

When we talk about work readiness, we know that it takes more than just academic skills and technical competencies to be successful in the workplace.  It requires that employees understand the entire work situation – how to work with managers, customers, or clients, and knowledge of the products or services associated with particular jobs.  These kinds of skills have become known as “employability skills. ” In 1990, the then-Secretary of Labor chartered the Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) made up of representatives from across many industries.  The commission’s charge was to define the critical skills that everyone must possess to succeed in the workplace.  Among findings issued in 1991 were eight key competencies: 

Resources – allocating staff, materials, space
Interpersonal – contributing to the team, clients, and customers through positive interaction
Technology – understanding the productivity tools of the workplace
Systems – improving the social, organizational, and technological systems in the workplace
Information – acquiring, evaluating, and communicating data to team members and customers
Basic – having strong literacy and computational skills
Personal Responsibility – showing maturity, commitment, and confidence
Thinking – using creativity and higher-order reasoning to solve complex problems

Since 1991, schools, government agencies, curriculum developers and employers have used this set of employability skills to design programs and materials.  This document provides a quick introduction to the concept of employability skills, how they relate to skill standards, and how they are being measured.

What are “employability skills?”

Definitions: 
Academic Skills – These are knowledge and skills associated with the academic disciplines of reading, writing, mathematics, and science.  
Employability Skills – These are skills used to perform effectively across a broad range of occupations, such as teamwork, decision making, and problem solving.
Occupational and Technical Skills -- These are the specific technical and occupational knowledge and skills needed for work, such as engine repair, knowledge of sales methods, or database programming.

Source: Built to Work: A Common Framework for Skill Standards, Department of Labor, National Skill Standards Board, 2000, p. 20.  

Employability skills are foundation skills that apply across the board, no matter what the specific job may be.   Examples of general employability skills are include: communications skills, teamwork skills, problem-solving skills, and self-management skills. 

Knowing that one must get to work on time, having a back-up plan in case of family emergencies, handling irate customers, knowing when to call a supervisor are all employability skills. For example, getting to work on time is part of the SCANS skill called “Resources.”  Handling the concerns of an irate customer uses the skills that SCANS terms “Interpersonal” 
Some examples of skills thought to be important for all kinds of occupations are listed below. 

Employability Skill Competency Areas in
SkillsUSA Programs and Curriculum

•	Negotiating Skills
•	Communications Skills
•	Goals and Goal Setting
•	Time Management
•	Cultural Diversity and Workplace Equity
•	Customer Service
•	Community Service
•	Government and Civic Awareness
•	Teamwork Skills
•	Workplace Safety
•	Conducting and Participating in Meetings

	•	Personal Development Skills
•	Mentoring
•	Supervisory/Management Skills
•	Entrepreneurship
•	Conflict Resolution
•	Workplace Ethics
•	Job Seeking Skills
•	Research and Investigate
•	Use of Technology
•	Portfolio Development

Source: SkillsUSA–VICA Professional Development Program, Chapter Program of Work, Total Quality Curriculum, and Chapter Standards

Who Should Possess Employability Skills and Why?

Everyone can benefit from learning or improving one’s employability skills.  Even jobs that were once thought to be solely technical in nature are changing to require a wider range of employability skills.  For example, at one time an auto service technician spent  most of his or her time working on the car itself or repairing technical problems.  Now, because modern consumers are more sophisticated, ask more questions, and need more information, increasingly auto service technicians are spending more time in contact with customers.  This requires communication skills to meet the customers’ needs and teamwork skills to work with co-workers, managers, and suppliers.

Employability skills are important for all kinds of workers.  It can be hard to imagine how people in very different jobs can use the same employability skills but, in fact, the same skills are applied in different settings.  The chart below demonstrates the concept of portability by showing the application of the same employability skills of Time Management and Communications in different occupations.

It is clear that no matter what the occupational area, time management, communications, and other employability skills are critical for success on the job.
APPLICATION OF SKILLS	
	Time Management	Communications	
Network Engineer Installer	Manage competing repair requests, including repairs that require travel to distant sites.	Explain to teammates and clients how to resolve connectivity issues.	
Cosmetologist	Perform services within the scheduled time frame. Schedule future appointments during breaks between current appointments.	Make recommendations to customers using tact and product knowledge.	
Brick mason	Determine when a new batch of building materials will need to be delivered.  Stay on production schedule.	Update General Contractor on progress so the next step in construction can be scheduled.	

Over the past few years, business and industry have become increasingly concerned about what they feel is a lack of skills in the applicants who come to them to apply for jobs and look for careers.  In 1998, the Secretary of the Department of Labor, the Honorable Alexis Herman, voiced this concern during an address at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government:

“We don’t have a worker shortage in this country.  We have a skills shortage.”   

Even with the change in presidential administrations, the importance of skills continues to be emphasized as shown in remarks from Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao: 

“Throughout most of our lifetimes, the chief economic challenge has been unemployment.  But that is changing dramatically.  The economy is still producing thousands of service and technology jobs that go unfilled – even with the recent downturn in the dot-com sector.  That’s because there’s a disconnect between the new jobs that are being created and the current skill level of many people in the workforce.” 

In fact, this ongoing priority is reflected at the federal level through several venues.  Among the most important are the Workforce Investment Act and the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998, both of which emphasize the importance of developing and implementing core standards and measures of performance in the area of employability skills.  
Recently released standards for the Manufacturing and Sales and Service sectors underscore the importance of employability skills.  Under the auspices of the National Skills Standards Board (NSSB) established by Congress in 1994, hundreds of business and labor leaders produced and validated standards for employment and promotion in their industries.  The NSSB fundamentals include both academic skills and employability skills.  It’s on that bedrock that hands-on technical skill training is based. 

Similarly, the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) of the U.S. Department of Education, reinforces the importance of being able to measure employability skills through the creation of “Career Clusters” for educational purposes.  Each of the clusters of career titles consists of entry-level through professional-level occupations in an occupational area and academic and employability skills are among the core competencies.  

In conjunction with federal initiatives, states and local communities have also been selecting and developing employability skills assessments in order to review and measure the activities of their educational institutions.  For example, local school jurisdictions have begun requiring that their high school graduates have the life skills and job readiness skills that will prepare them for larger roles in society, not only as university students, but also as apprentices and entry-level workers who contribute to the economy.

With the increasing emphasis on defining, teaching and measuring employability skills at the national, state, and local levels, it is crucial to identify a common basis for discussion.  The foundation of this discussion must be a set of comprehensive, defensible standards.

What are standards? 

Standards define the specific attributes of a skill so that the skill can be both taught and measured.  

Standards are: 
•	Accurate 
•	Reflective of a broad consensus
•	Specific enough to guide instruction and assessment
•	Measurable
•	Multi-leveled to include several levels of performance
•	Written clearly enough for all to understand

The standards for employability, or foundation skills that are most widely accepted, are those developed by the Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS). 

Defining what is meant by standards for employability skills gives schools and employers a common language so that they know that they mean the same thing when they talk about job readiness.  Having nationally recognized standards provides a yardstick by which to assess a person’s accomplishments.

Voluntary industry standards established under he National Skill Standards Board include employability skills.  NSSB industry cluster projects consult broadly within the industry, including companies with exemplary practices, to identify the critical work functions and key activities of employees and supervisors.  Employees in the field then validate these functions and activities.  

In the Customer Service and Sales Skills standards, a skill for employees such as Organizing and Planning is divided into levels of complexity including the complexity of the plan, and constraints on planning such as lack of guidelines, lack of feedback and constraints on resource availability and then weighted as to the degree of difficulty expected of employees as workers and/or front-line supervisors.  

What are assessments?

Assessments are tests that measure how well a person performs based on the standards that have been set for that skill set.

Assessments can be subjective, in the case of a self-assessment where a person is asked to rate him or herself in terms of interests, abilities, and skills.  The usefulness of the answers on a subjective assessment will be accurate to the degree that the respondent has a realistic picture of his or her strengths and weaknesses.  Objective assessments are usually considered more reliable because a third party judges the quality of the performance of a task or project.  Some types of objective assessments are listed below, in the two general categories of “performance-based” and “non-performance-based” assessments.

Performance-based testing requires the candidate to perform the skill that is being tested or to come up with an original answer or solution to a problem orally or in writing.  In performance-based assessment, a task or presentation can be carried out before a panel of judges.  This replicates a real-life situation within the confines of a contest environment.  Three examples of performance-based assessments are listed below:

Project Assessments – This is a hands-on type of assessment where a student performs a real-life project that might be found/required in a workplace.  A teacher or judge follows the student’s progress with the assessment criteria in mind.  An example of this approach might be a project by a student who wants to enter the home health care field to create an information packet for senior citizens regarding health care costs, options, insurance coverage and services for home health care.

Portfolio Assessments – In this kind of assessment, the student documents the attainment of skills for each standard that has been established.  An example of this is the approach taken by Fairfield Career Center in Carroll, Ohio.  Students prepare portfolios that contain proof of their completion of each level of specific employability skills.  When the portfolio is complete, it provides a complete picture of the student’s job readiness and can be evaluated by teachers, judges business and industry, or employees during a job interview.  

Competitions – Contests can demonstrate students’ skills in a realistic situation.  A contest is shorter in time frame, and more limited in scope than a performance assessment on the job.  Contests measure performance under pressure in a competitive environment.  Some examples of organizations that use competitions for assessment purposes: DECA, the Association of Marketing Students; the TRAC Challenge by TRAC/USA, a group that specializes in retail skills education; and, SkillsUSA-VICA, which promotes skill development in over 130 different occupations across several industrial sectors.  SkillsUSA uses industry standards for designing contests and evaluating competitor performance.  As new standards are adopted by industry, they are added to the regulations for competitive events.  This is done, in part, to keep instructional programs up to date and drive student achievement upward.

Non-performance-based assessments are completed with paper and pencil, or, increasingly are computer-based.  In addition, they can be done in a classroom or testing center using theoretical knowledge of the skills.  

Written Assessment – These are standardized written tests that probe for ability by posing questions to elicit knowledge, attitudes, and aptitudes.  One example of written assessment is the Retail Readiness Assessment, developed by the National Retail Federation and National Computer Systems to measure sales and customer service skills.

Video-based Assessment – Video-based assessments, provided on a CD-ROM, video tape, or over the Internet, provide a simulation of real-life situations, with paper and pencil or computer based answering and scoring systems.  An example of this kind of assessment is the Workplace Success Skills System, part of the AccuVision assessment series by AlignMark.  A simulation might show a typical workplace situation in which actors present realistic problems to be solved, followed by a set of possible responses.  The scoring is supported by a valid, reliable assessment structure.

Who assesses employability skills? 

In the case of academic skills assessment, most people would agree that schools are in the best position to test learning in the academic disciplines.   Similarly, technical skills would most logically be measured by industry or groups that represent or involve industry.  

SkillsUSA–VICA 
•	Skills-USA/VICA is a national organization serving more than 250,000 high school and college students and instructors annually.  
•	Students are enrolled in training programs in technical, skilled, and service occupations, including health occupations.  
•	SkillsUSA-VICA provides education experiences in leadership, teamwork, citizenship and character development.  
•	Approximately 13,000 teachers and school administrators are also served.  
•	Over 1,000 industry leaders such as Caterpillar, DeWalt Industrial Tool Co., General Motors Corporation, Snap-on Tools, Best Buy, and PPG Industries are active sponsors.

Source: SkillsUSA-VICA 

Employability skills, however, do not fit squarely within the purview of schools or of industry, and so a number of organizations have sought to fill the gap in developing ways to measure achievement.  Testing companies that have special expertise in development of assessments are one type of organization.  Another type of organization that both teaches and provides tools for assessment in employability and technical skills is the Career and Technical Student Organization (CTSO). These organizations, found in most of the nation’s high schools, area career centers—and for some CTSOs in colleges—encourage the development of employability skills to be used in every occupational setting.

SkillsUSA-VICA, founded in 1965 sponsors a broad range of career preparation activities, including assessments.  The organization has developed curricula, activities, and assessments to encourage the development of employability skills.  SkillsUSA sponsors industry-designed and administered contests that assess participants’ hands-on technical skills and employability skills.  In 72 contests that range from computer networking to diesel mechanics, through public speaking to Total Quality Management, all local, state and national contests are based on industry standards updated every three years.  Contest assessments are performed by panels of judges from the relevant occupation.  The judges receive training prior to the contest so that assessments criteria are consistent.

Students and schools both benefit.  So does business: “. . .It seems unlikely that so many professionals would continue to work on the [SkillsUSA] conference and persuade their companies to donate equipment and materials if they were not consistently recruiting good employees through [SkillsUSA] VICA.”

SkillsUSA-VICA contests and curricula have been used as assessments in a number of contexts:

In Industry - The contest-based performance assessment developed by SkillsUSA was used when two companies merged.   When Northrop Grumman bought Westinghouse Electronic Sensors & Systems, it wanted to find out what skills they had purchased along with the company.  They needed to know the skill levels of the 350+ Westinghouse technicians.  Northrop Grumman hired a company that had familiarity with a competition in electronics technology using SkillsUSA’s guidelines, and had each of the technicians complete the contest.  Through this scenario, skills were identified which led to more effective management and direction of employee skills and talents.

Why base our statewide standards on SkillsUSA’s Professional Development Program and Championships Technical Standards?

“Because they are industry driven.  The PDP is an industry validation of a student’s skills, a non-biased third party evaluation of the student  --including hands-on technical and employability skills.  The same is true of the Championships.”

- Karen Ward,  Massachusetts Department of Education.

By States - Massachusetts is implementing a hands-on assessment of skills for its secondary school students through the State-wide Certificate of Proficiency (COPS) program.   The School-to-Career Cluster of the state Department of Education is developing a balanced assessment system including written technical assessment, hands-on, and employability skills assessment.  Documentation includes a portfolio and local school validation for every student.  Students will demonstrate employability skills through performance-based portfolios augmented by hands-on and written assessments similar to SkillsUSA competitive events.  The COPS employability skills section is based on SCANS as articulated by SkillsUSA–VICA’s Professional Development Program.  

At School – In schools, technical and academic instructors use SkillsUSA’s Professional Development Program (PDP) curriculum to help students learn and practice employability skills. The curriculum teaches 84 employability skills to help students meet the competencies outlined by SCANS.  A scientific survey of PDP users conducted in 2000 found that 92 percent of the respondents used the program to teach employability skills.  The majority of respondents were using the PDP to meet SCANS and employability skills requirements that are included in the course work for credit (often included in state program approval standards).  Instructors report that the PDP provides tangible assessment results from both education and business.  

A specific example is the Fairfield Career Center in Carroll, Ohio.  Using the PDP curriculum, students create portfolios based on the different activities.  The portfolio documents their attainment of the skills.  In this case, the PDP serves as an assessment to measure the required level of proficiency in each skill area.  The Fairfield Career Center uses the PDP for all its students because of the level of involvement it encourages from both academic teachers and technical instructors and because of the Career Center’s priority on meeting the needs of local business and industry.

“Employers tell us ‘We don’t necessarily want your straight-A students, we want attitude, good attendance,  and communications skills.’  That’s what the PDP teaches them, and we want to meet the needs of business and industry.  That is our ultimate goal.” 
- Janet Miller, Fairfield Career Center

Conclusion
As with academic and technical skills, employability skills can be measured through assessments.  Assessments are tests based on standards for a certain set of skills.  Assessments can provide a picture of a person’s abilities in a skill area.  Employability skills assessments may be hands-on, written, or video-based simulations via the Internet.  Some widely-used employability skills assessment tools have been developed by SkillsUSA and are being used by businesses, schools, and as statewide achievement standards.

Web-based Resources on Assessment	
Accommodations for People with Disabilities	
Job Accommodation Network at the University of West Virginia  	www.jan.wvu.edu	
Federal Government	
Department of Labor	www.doleta.gov; http://usworkforce.org	
Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education	www.ed.gov/offices/OVAE	
National Skills Standards Board 	www.nssb.org	
Assessment and Testing Associations, Universities, and Specialty Centers	
American College Testing – WorkKeys	www.act.org/workkeys/assess/index.html)	
American Psychological Association document on standards for testing	www.apa.org/science/standards.html	
Assessment collection 	http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/assessment/	
Institute for Policy Studies SCANS 2000 Center   	www.scans.jhu.edu	
National Occupational Competency Testing Institute	http://www.nocti.org/	
National Center for Research in Vocational Education, University of California Berkeley	http://vocserve.berkeley.edu/	
Business and Industry Groups	
U.S. Chamber of Commerce Center for Workforce Preparation 	www.uschamber.com/CWP/default.htm	
National Employer Leadership Council	www.nelc.org	
Sales & Service 	www.salesandservice.org	
Manufacturing	www.msscusa.org	
Plastics	www.plasticsindustry.org	
Educational & Training	www.etvp.org	
Hospitality & Restaurants	www.restaurant.org	
Retail	www.nrf.com	
National Coalition for Advanced Manufacturing	www.nacfam.org	
Association for Manufacturing Technology	www.mfgtech.org	
National Institute for Metalworking Skills	www.nims-skills.org	
Testing Companies	
NCS London House catalog – 2001 Business and Industry Assessments 	http://londonhouse.ncspearson.com	
Alignmark	www.alignmark.com	
Workplace Essential Skills Video Lessons (curriculum) by KET for PBS Literacy Link	www.ket.org/ged/products/work-ed/	
Career and Technical Student Organizations	
Business Professionals of America 	www.bpa.org	
DECA ( marketing)	www.deca.org	
Family, Career and Community Leaders of America 	www.fcclainc.org	
Future Business Leaders of America – Phi Beta Lambda 	www.fbla-pbl.org	
Health Occupations Students of America 	www.hosa.org	
National FFA (agriculture)	www.ffa.org	
SkillsUSA-VICA	www.skillsusa.org	
Technology Student Association 	www.tsawww.org	

Publication Credits
Concept: Thomas Holdsworth, SkillsUSA-VICA
Independent Research & Writing: Andrea Berman
Content Consultants: Beth Holst, Gloria Cohen