Student Perception of Essential Employability Qualities in a First-Year Experience Course

Essential Employability Qualities, also known as soft skills, are becoming just as important for new college graduates to demonstrate during the hiring process as job-specific skills (Hart Research Associates, 2018; National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2018). A review of the literature reveals that employers (Ahmad, 2019; Chhinzer & Russo, 2018; Durrani & Tariq. 2012; Finch et al., 2013; Gruzdev et al., 2018; Robles, 2012; Ortiz, 2016), college faculty (Cotronei-Baird, 2020; Huang et al., 2016; Paterson, 2017; Tang, 2019), and students (Ahmad, 2019; Jackson, 2015; Maguire, 2018; Pheko & Molefhe, 2017) recognize the importance of soft skills during the hiring process, however a gap exists in the research focusing specifically on student perception of soft skills during enrollment in a first year experience course. First-year experience courses have been implemented at institutions of higher education in an effort to lay the foundation for student growth throughout the remainder of the college experience (Hatch & Bohlig, 2016). However, first year experience courses often do not explicitly introduce essential employability qualities. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore student perception of essential employability qualities during enrollment in a first-year experience course at Jefferson Community and Technical College and compare and contrast the perceptions to employer perceptions within the literature. The main findings indicate that the study participants recognized the importance of both job-specific skills and soft skills in the hiring process. In contrast to employer expectations found in the literature (Hart Research Associates, 2018; National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2018), the participants felt adequately prepared with necessary soft skills and placed emphasis on their expected development of job-specific skills during the process of earning a college degree. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]