This document provides an overview of a webinar on developing skills for educational and workplace success in the 21st century. It discusses challenges employers face with new graduates lacking key competencies like problem-solving, critical thinking and information literacy. Presenters address how to better integrate these skills through teaching students the "cultures" of academic disciplines and workplaces. They emphasize understanding each field's knowledge base, beliefs and methods. The document also summarizes a survey finding major skills gaps employers face and recommendations for assessing and addressing gaps through targeted training solutions.

1. From School to Workforce:
Information Literacy, Critical Thinking, and
Problem-Solving Skills
October 16, 2012

2. Best Practices
1. E-mail Laura Warren, Libraries
Thriving Coordinator, with Libraries
Thriving questions, comments or
suggestions.
2. Share comments and questions
throughout the session via the chat box.
3. Continue the conversation on the
Libraries Thriving Discussion Forum.

3. Our Facilitator
Lana W. Jackman, Ph.D.
President
National Forum on Information Literacy
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

4. A National Forum on Information Literacy
and Credo Reference/Libraries Thriving
Collaboration - October 16, 2012. ©2012 Lana W. Jackman, Ph.D. President

5. PRESENTERS
William Badke, Associate Librarian, Trinity
Western University for Associated Canadian
Theological Schools and Information Literacy
Jennifer Homer, Vice President of
Communications and Career
Development, American Society for Training
and Development

6. TODAY’S QUESTIONS??
What are the competencies required for educational
and workplace success in the 21st century?
What do we need to do as education and workforce
development professionals to prepare learners how to
live and work in this dynamically, emerging networked
universe?

7. FIRST YEAR STUDENTS IN TWO AND FOUR YEAR COLLEGES
2004
FA C U LT Y P E R S P E C T I V E S EMPLOYER PERSPECTIVES
• 66% of students cannot think analytically • 39% of recent high school graduates
with no further education are
• 70% of students do not comprehend unprepared for the expectations that
complex reading materials they face in entry-level jobs
• 65% lack appropriate work and study • 45% are not adequately prepared for
the skills and abilities they need to
habits
advance beyond entry level.
• 59% do not know how to do research • 46% of high school graduates who apply
at their company are inadequately
• 55% cannot apply what they’ve learned prepared for the work habits they will
to solve problems need on the job
• 41% are dissatisfied with graduates’
ability to read and understand
complicated materials.
Achieve. (2005). Rising to the challenge: Are high school graduates prepared for
college and work? Retrieved from http://www.achieve.org/files/pollreport_0.pdf

8. THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
EDUCATION FOR LIFE AND WORK: DEVELOPING TRANSFERABLE
KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS IN THE 21ST CENTURY
The charge for the Committee on Defining Deeper Learning and 21st Century
Skills was to define key 21st century skills, describe how they relate to skills
specified in the New Common Core, and investigate the importance of such
skills to success in K-16 education, work, and other areas of adult responsibility.
Included in the study is known and needed research on the issues involved and
assessments of recommended, potential interventions.
National Research Council. (2012). Education for Life and Work: Developing
Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century. Committee on Defining
Deeper Learning and 21st Century Skills, James W. Pellegrino and Margaret L.
Hilton, Editors. Board on Testing and Assessment and Board on Science
Education, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education.
Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

9. MAJOR STUDY OUTCOME
One of the major outcomes of this study is a preliminary
taxonomy of 21st century skills and abilities in which information
literacy is identified as belonging to the cognitive competence
domain, within the knowledge cluster, affiliated with O*Net as
content skills, and designated as a main ability factor i.e.
“crystallized intelligence”.
Occupational Information Network (O*NET) - large database of information on 965 occupations
which is organized around a “content model” which describes occupations along several
dimensions, including worker characteristics (abilities, interests, work values, and work styles) and
requirements (skills, knowledge, and education).

10. THE PROJECT INFORMATION LITERACY (PIL) PASSAGE
STUDIES
LEARNING CURVE: HOW COLLEGE GRADUATES SOLVE INFORMATION PROBLEMS ONCE
THEY JOIN THE WORKPLACE
OCTOBER, 2012
“Many employers were dazzled by new hires’ natural ease with
computers, but employers soon found graduates lacked research
readiness for the workplace.
Employers found newcomers rarely demonstrated traditional research
techniques, such as picking up a phone; thumbing through a bound
report; and interpreting results with team members.”
Alison Head, Ph.D. Executive Director and Principal Investigator, www.
http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_fall2012_workplaceStudy_FullReport.pdf

11. THE GLOBAL ACHIEVEMENT GAP
“The rigor that matters most for the 21st century is
demonstrated mastery of core competencies for
work, citizenship, and lifelong learning. Studying academic
content is the means of developing competencies, instead of
being the goal, as it has been traditionally. In today’s
world, it’s no longer how much you know that matters, it’s
what you can do with what you know.”
Wagner, T. (2008). The global achievement gap. New York; Perseus Books.

12. William Badke
Associate Librarian
Trinity Western University
Langley, BC Canada

14. We need a way to integrate the wide
range of skills required in the 21st
Century workplace.
As separate skill-sets, it is very difficult
to see how we can teach all this.

15. Let’s think in terms of “cultures.”
Every academic discipline and every
workplace has a distinct informational culture
or even complex of cultures.
If we can teach information-handling within
an informational culture, we can find a way to
teach students how to “read” any
informational culture.

16. Three crucial elements:
1. The knowledge base
2. The belief system
3. The methods used

17. Knowledge Base
What does this setting (discipline or workplace)
accept as reputable information?

18. Belief System
What does this setting believe about the task it
is doing?
Goals
Values
Motivations

19. Methods used
- How is information used well in this setting?
- What constitutes good evidence? - What
makes for valid judgments?
- How does one best do the task that connects
information with productivity?

20. So much for theory. Now the
practice:
1. Make the study of disciplinary culture part of
the very foundation of courses in higher
education. Ask:
a. What does our knowledge base look like? What
do we value as knowledge?

21. b. When we problem-solve in this discipline
(workplace), what is our goal? What do we
want to accomplish, and what do we believe is
possible?

22. c. What is good method in our use of
information to solve problems?
a. Acceptable procedures
b. Proper use of evidence
c. Determination of valid conclusions

23. This is information literacy in the best sense –
guiding students to enter the informational
culture of the setting in which they are working.
We accomplish this by making research –
problem solving using information – part of the
very foundation of our courses.

24. Jennifer Homer
Vice President of Communications and Career
Development
American Society for Training and Development
(ASTD)

25. Bridging the Skills Gap
Help Wanted, Skills Lacking:
Why the Mismatch in Today’s
Economy?
ASTD white paper
October 2012

26. What is the Skills Gap?
• A significant gap between an organization’s
current capabilities and the skills it needs to
achieve its goals.
• When an organization can no longer grow or
remain competitive because it cannot fill critical
jobs with employees who have the right
knowledge, skills, and abilities.

27. ASTD Survey: Is there a Skills Gap?
9.6%
6.4%
Yes
No
Don't know
84.0%
n = 377 responding organizations

28. Where are the Biggest Gaps?
54%
Leadership/executive-level skills 18%
24%
Basic skills (the traditional building blocks of business- 5%
14%
level competencies that are most commonly associated… 7%
37%
Professional or industry-specific skills 32%
19%
38%
Managerial/supervisory skills 48%
28%
8%
Customer service skills 13%
20% Ranked 1
16% Ranked 2
Communication/interpersonal skills 26%
33% Ranked 3
17%
Technical/IT/systems skills 16%
13%
9%
Sales skills 12%
5%
17%
Process and project management skills 27%
44%
6%
Other 1%
14%
n = 377 responding organizations
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

29. Why is there a Skills Gap in Your Organization?
58%
Skills of the current workforce do not match changes in 40%
46%
company strategy, goals, markets, or business models
55%
Not enough bench strength in the company's leadership 48%
22%
ranks
Recent merger/acquisition where the organization brought in 8%
new employees or current employees are not up-to-speed on 12%
9%
the new industry Ranked 1
41% Ranked 2
Training investments have been cut or there is a lack of
commitment by senior leaders to employee learning and 36% Ranked 3
46%
development
30%
When hiring for certain types of jobs, there are too few 35%
38%
qualified candidates (i.e. a gap in the pipeline?
18%
Lack of skilled talent in one or more of the company's lines of 39%
49%
business
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
n = 377 responding organizations

30. What are the Business Impacts of Having Skills Gaps?
77%
Lower productivity 40%
38%
16%
Slower time-to-market 8%
6%
10%
Less profitable 24%
20%
17%
Challenges to recruitment 9%
14%
42%
Less efficient 69%
38%
Ranked 1
16%
Unable to expand or grow 12%
23% Ranked 2
4% Ranked 3
Less new product development 8%
8%
8%
Harder to compete 25%
22%
7%
Higher expenses 13%
38%
31%
Missed opportunities 26%
14%
9%
Other 3%
17%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
n = 377 responding organizations

31. Take Action!
• While many organizations talk about the skills
gap challenge, few people have provided
suggestions on what to do about the problem
• The Action Plan provided in this white paper
helps managers, CEOs, and learning
professionals identify and assess gaps, and take
action to close them

32. Taking Charge of the Skills Gap
1. Understand key strategies, goals, and
performance metrics
2. Identify competencies that map to strategies
and performance metrics
3. Assess the skills gap
4. Set goals and prioritize the path to filling gaps
5. Implement solutions
6. Monitor and measure results, and
communicate the impact

33. Five Case Studies/Best Practices

34. An e-copy of the white paper may be
found here on October 18:
www.astd.org/careerdevelopment
Send questions to Jennifer Homer:
jhomer@astd.org

35. Questions -
Comments

36. Lana W. Jackman, Ph.D.
President
National Forum on
Information Literacy
nfil@infolit.org
www.infolit.org
617.959.1464
Thank you for joining us!