Understanding the Employability of College Graduates for Success in the Workplace

In our increasingly competitive world, it is critical that college graduates enter the workplace with the appropriate skills to not only survive but also grow their career. Current college graduates have not consistently acquired the skills needed for success in the workplace to learn and thrive continuously in our rapidly changing world. The Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Science must identify the specific strategies that develop best the needed skills for the success of the graduate and society The purpose of the study was to identify a land grant college of agriculture and life sciences' (LGCALS) current programmatic and classroom strategies for developing students' ability to learn and thrive continuously in our rapidly changing world and a (1) explore programmatic strategies for developing students' ability to continuously learn and thrive; (2) explore innovative instructors classroom strategies for developing students' ability to learn and thrive continuously; (3) describe graduates perceptions of career readiness as measured through the bases of competence inventory, and finally; (4) compare programmatic strategies, classroom strategies and graduates' perceptions for career readiness. A mixed methods convergent parallel design guided the research. Qualitative interviews were employed for exploring experiences using an interpretive, constructivist, and naturalistic approach for research objectives 1 and 2. A cross sectional survey design and questionnaire, Making the Match, was used to conduct the quantitative research for objective 3. The mixed methods portion of the convergent parallel design was used to frame and explore research objective 4. Findings of the study detail need for curriculum improvement in problem solving, learning, time management, creativity and change, and personal strengths.