Article pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Insight into the Chemistry Skills Gap: The Duality between Expected and Desired Skills Anne E. Kondo and Justin D. Fair* Department of Chemistry, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, Pennsylvania 15705, United States S Supporting Information *
ABSTRACT: Results from an employer survey that examines the skills gap that exists for students majoring in chemistry are presented. Employers expect candidates with technical abilities but desire those who possess strong interprofessional skills. Although employers do not expect students to have had explicit teaching and application of interprofessional skills, employers wish that chemistry programs incorporated them. The results show which particular skills, specific to chemists and in relation to other fields, make up the skills gap and are in demand. Employers of chemistry majors utilize grade-point average as an initial metric to rank candidates, much like other STEM and non-STEM employers, but unlike most other fields, they choose candidates who have had team experiences specifically related to chemistry topics. The discussion illustrates how and when chemistry candidates can best highlight their acquired skill sets. These results will be of interest to those who develop and implement chemistry curricula and to B.S. Chemistry students. KEYWORDS: Curriculum, First-Year Undergraduate/General, Second-Year Undergraduate, Upper-Division Undergraduate, Student/Career Counseling
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person is capable of accomplishing, to complete group goals. The result is a patchwork of individualized pieces combined into a deliverable. In contrast, teamwork, in which employers say new hires lack experience, necessitates a proficient use of interprofessional skills where members rely on their separate expertise.4 Each member’s use of his/her interprofessional skills provides for a collaborative environment allowing for constructive conflict where team members can communicate their technical expertise. The project results culminate with all members contributing equally and cohesively to the project outcomes. One of the best approaches to transform group work into teamwork is to design scientific problems where individual team members possess knowledge that other members lack. Members are then required to depend on one another to cultivate a cooperative environment that allows for increased communication and collaboration.5 Interprofessional collaboration can be treated as consisting of four domains: interpersonal values and ethics, team member roles and responsibilities, teamwork, and collaborative communication.6 A knowledgeable team member’s insight may not be acted upon when the team does not respect the source.7 Students’ understanding of group dynamics and how
ecent reports have evaluated the level of concordance between typical chemistry curricula and the knowledge and skills valued by the chemical industry.1,2 Factors that influenced the hiring of B.S.-level chemists, such as exposure to current chemical reaction methods, most widely used instrumentation, and most common chemical techniques, were examined. Although the main emphasis of the industrially focused survey was directed toward technical curricular development, when probing the importance of interpersonal skills, teamwork, experience, and grade-point average (GPA), it was noted that interpersonal skills and teamwork rated significantly higher than either experience or GPA.1 Herein we report on what led to this strong preference and to identify the nontechnical skills that are in demand, specifically in the chemistry field. The literature dealing with these nontechnical skills contains a wide variety of terms relating to interpersonal and team skills.3 Intrapersonal skills are those personal skills involving individual, positive attributes, interpersonal skills are those that contribute to people working well together, and communication skills are written, spoken, and unspoken communication (i.e., listening, watching, and reading) required for effective teamwork. In practice, these skills are overlapping and intertwined and are known collectively as “interprofessional skills”. Group work, which is common at universities, occurs when members of a group divide the required tasks, which each © XXXX American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
Received: July 27, 2016 Revised: December 31, 2016
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b00566 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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their abilities fit within the team are critical for teams to work efficiently.6 Team members must be careful about stereotyping other member’s professions, to avoid erosion of mutual respect.8 Being able to communicate one’s role and expectations helps shape the team members’ roles and responsibilities.9 National and regional reports have highlighted the general need for an interprofessionally competent workforce, noting that 90% of employers have reported that interpersonal, teamwork, and communication skills are more or equally important than technical skills.10,11 The importance placed on interprofessional skills is consistent with the current literature in STEM and non-STEM fields, where interpersonal and teamwork skills were also ranked above technical skills.3 Upon examination of the typical chemistry curriculum, there is little explicit mention of teaching interpersonal skills and teamwork. The American Chemical Society (ACS) Committee on Professional Training (CPT) includes “Communication” and “Team Skills” under the section “Development of Student Skills in a Chemistry Curriculum” within its guidelines for program approval.12 While the ACS supplements to the guidelines state that “solving scientific problems often involves working in disciplinary and multidisciplinary teams”, most group experiences entail pairings of students from within the same course section. Importantly, in these pairings each member of the team does not depend on the other to complete the exercise, and the end product does not necessitate teamwork or collaboration. With 64% of recent B.A./B.S.-level graduates working in industry or government, it is important that programs are aware of the needs of employers in the chemical industry.13 The remaining 36% of recent graduates who continue their education in graduate or professional schools will also benefit from the inclusion of interprofessional skills to close the widening skills gap at the Ph.D. level when entering the workforce.14,15 Although there are national surveys that report on skills valued by employers, these reports contain a combination of STEM and non-STEM fields with a limited number of respondents from the chemical field. The most recent report studying the needs of those in chemistry provided a 1998 snapshot by surveying chemistry help-wanted ads.16 To enhance our students’ marketability, we must identify those nontechnical skills that are currently in demand in chemistry before we can focus our effort on effective curricular enhancements.
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Background on Survey Respondents
The top six sectors in which the respondents worked were pharmaceutical, fine chemicals, biotechnology, polymer/plastics, government, and food chemistry. Of the 41 voluntarily reported companies, there were no more than three respondents from the same company. Large, moderate, and small companies are represented in the data with approximately equal makeup. The six most self-identified industrial sectors, in decreasing order, were pharmaceutical, polymer and plastics, fine chemical, biotechnology, consulting, and government. The breakdown of degree level was doctorate (34%), postdoctorate (33%), bachelor’s (17%), and master’s (16%). Respondents’ levels of position included senior (52%), management (29%), associate (16%), and assistant (4%), and of these, 72% of the respondents reported that they assisted directly with the selection of new B.S.-level hires in their company. The breakdown of areas of chemical focus and product development cycles were research and development (product/target refinement) (80%), product/process development (scale-up) (50%), initial discovery (product/target identification) (46%), and manufacturing (26%). It should be noted that respondents could choose more than one product development cycle area.
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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Field-Specific Results Compared with Generalized Data
A national survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) provides a yearly job outlook for all fields that forecasts the hiring intentions of employers as they relate to new college graduates.18 The NACE survey includes data on attributes employers seek on a candidate’s resume. Comparing the NACE results to those of the survey reported herein, targeting the chemical field, can provide insights to determine whether the NACE results are in concordance (Table 1). There are three skills that differ by more than three positions and do not correlate: leadership, written communication, and interpersonal skills. A survey of job ads keywords from 1998,16 although the survey is 18 years old, is more in line with our current survey of employers in the chemical industry. Communication, both written and oral, is not in agreement with our survey presented here. The nature of the data source, a survey of job ads versus employer surveys, could have led to this difference. It should be noted that while the NACE survey ranked interpersonal skills near the bottom, with 58% of employers looking for this skill on a candidate’s resume, the current survey reported 90% of respondents “Strongly Agree” that it is an important skill, and the job ads survey ranked it among the top four keywords. All three surveys, regardless of the way each question was probed, ranked teamwork in the top three, while leadership was not as highly desirable for the chemistry fields as other fields surveyed. Table 1 illustrates the need for the chemical field to evaluate occasionally the attributes specific to its own field and not rely on non-STEM-focused surveys.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Survey Administration
The survey was administered using an online survey system for 5 weeks from 11/16/2015 to 12/22/2015 (IRB no. 15-254).17 The target audience of the study was persons currently working in chemical industry. In order to reach this audience, the survey was distributed by e-mailing prior survey respondents1 and posting on chemically relevant social media such as LinkedIn. To further entice responses, an iPad was given away by a random drawing at the conclusion of the survey. A total of 98 responses were recorded over the survey period. The survey contained 22 questions consisting of multiple choice, multiple answer, matrix table, slide rule, ranking, and text entry (essay) question types. The average response time was 14 min. The survey is available as Supporting Information.
Relative Importance of Particular Skills in the Chemical Field
Two independent surveys, comprising a combination of nonSTEM and STEM employers, identified the skills gap between interprofessional and technical skills. One survey identified that 44% of new hires lacked teamwork and interpersonal skills and 22% lacked the technical skills necessary to complete their job duties.11 The other survey reported that 71% of companies state that they find it challenging to find employees with B
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“Unimportant”. The survey defined “Interpersonal Skills” as “works well with others”, “Teamwork” as “ability to work in a team”, and “Leadership” as “ability to motivate/inspire others”. The skills are presented in Figure 1 in order of decreasing percentage of respondents who categorized them as “Very Important”. Rankings of “Not Important” and “Unimportant” are not included, as these rankings were selected only once or twice, if at all, per category. An exception was the trait “Leadership”, where 9% of respondents ranked it as “Not Important” for new B.S.-level hires (vide infra). Figure 1 is consistent with reports in the literature20 and popular press21 across all disciplines: interpersonal and teamwork skills are highly valued by employers. In this survey the value continues with the combined “Very Important” and “Somewhat Important” scores being greater than 98%. Thus, interpersonal and teamwork skills were ranked by chemical employers as significantly more important than the scientific skills expected of a typical B.S. hireanalytical/quantitative skills, technical skills, and oral and written communication skills. These technically oriented skills are still important: their combined “Very Important” and “Somewhat Important” scores are greater than 88%. However, these results indicate that technical skills, although still valued, are not as valued as the interpersonal and teamwork skills. Being able to get along with ones’ co-workers appears to surpass analytical/quantitative skills. Comments suggest that if a student possesses desirable personal traits, more technical skills can be taught, i.e.: “If a candidate has a good attitude and takes care in their work you can teach them any particular technical skill.” The disparity between the rankings of interpersonal skills, especially the low ranking in the NACE survey, may come from how the question was asked. Respondents of the NACE survey were probing what attributes they seek on a resume and not what they value. Our survey identified comments suggesting that a resume may not be the ideal place to showcase these
Table 1. Comparison of the Rankings of Desirable Skills from Surveys and Job Ads Ranking of Skills in Various Survey Types
Skill Interpersonal skills Teamwork Strong work ethic Problem solving skills Initiative Analytical/ quantitative skills Technical skills Oral communication skills Written communication skills Organizational skills Computer skills Leadership
Ranking by Current Employer Survey (%)a
Ranking by 1998 Job Ad Survey (%)b
Ranking by 2016 NACE Employer Survey (%)c
1 (90)
4 (6.69)
10 (58)
2 (83) 3 (79) 4 (68)
3 (7.3) 6 (3.7) 7 (2.9)
2 (79) 6 (69) 4 (70)
5 (55) 6 (44)
no data 8 (2.3)
7 (66) 8 (63)
7 (42) 8 (41)
no data 2 (8.4)
9 (60) 5 (69)
9 (41)
1 (9.0)
3 (70)
10 (31)
5 (4.5)
12 (48)
11 (15) 12 (13)
no data 9 (2.99)
11 (55) 1 (80)
a
Percent of employers who strongly agree that the skill is important (N = 98). bPercent chance of finding the keyword in a job ad (N = 2035). cPercent of employers who seek the skill on a resume (N = 16).
required interpersonal and team skills and only 25% find it challenging but not as difficult as finding those with necessary technical skills.19 To probe the question of how teamwork and interpersonal skills ranked compared with more technical skills, our respondents were asked to identify the importance of various traits in new B.S.-level hires, ranging from “Very Important” to
Figure 1. Percent importance of desirable skills by employers of new chemistry hires. C
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Figure 2. Employer expectations of formal instruction with regard to specific skills.
Of the respondents, 90% felt teamwork was more important, 8% regarded them as equally important, and only 1% felt leadership skills were more important. This finding reinforces the notion that leadership skills are not expected for new B.S. hires and that programs should focus their efforts on developing team members.
skills. It seems most employers assess these skills during the interview: “It (interpersonal skills) is more an evaluation during the interview process.” Written and verbal communication skills are almost always mentioned in job ads, which explains their number 1 and 2 rankings when surveying job ads. The current employer survey and national surveys highlight their importance, but they fall below interpersonal skills and teamwork. Regardless, communication is a critical component of interpersonal skills and fosters a stronger, more productive team. Many new programs in the sciences emphasize the ability to generate leaders through leader experiences.22 This emphasis is mirrored in the results of the NACE survey. However, a section of the current survey was dedicated to understanding employers’ desires for team members versus leaders. Surprisingly, of all the skills, “Leadership Skills” achieved the lowest ranking in importance. Given the number of leadership programs being initiated, these results should give program developers pause. Responses in the free comments section of our survey indicate that the issues, for the sciences anyway, could be that no one expects fresh young graduates to have many leadership skills, that they may find the assertion of these skills inappropriate, and that leadership skills are developed with experience. Some representative comments include the following: “We are not looking for BS candidates to be leaders. They grow into leadership but team member (teamwork) is far more important.” “A BS level chemist would rarely be given leadership opportunities...I don’t think you are doing your students a service by letting them think they will come into an entry level position with an expectation that they would have any leadership roles. That would only come with years’ worth of experience and evaluations of how they would fit with the team.” Survey respondents were also asked to rank the relative importance of teamwork versus leadership skills in a B.S. hire.
Expected versus Desired Instruction of Skills
In an effort to better understand curricular needs, respondents were asked to identify skills in which they expected new hires to have had formal instructioni.e., planned, explicit lessons with practical application and associated evaluation/feedback. The choice of responses per skill were “Definitely Yes”, “Definitely No”, “No, But I Wish They Did” and “No Opinion”. The results for “Definitely Yes”, “Definitely No”, and “No, But I Wish They Did” for each category are shown in Figure 2. “No Opinion” has been omitted for clarity. As indicated by the break that occurs around 80%, employers overwhelmingly expect new B.S. hires to have had training, practical experience, and feedback/evaluation in technical skills, analytical/quantitative skills, written and oral communication skills, and problem solving skills. These results are not surprising, as science B.S. degrees are quite technical and the program approval standards of the ACS call for such skills to be taught and assessed. “Teamwork” and “Strong Work Ethic” are traits that employers have a slightly stronger preference for expecting versus wishing that students have had formal instruction. “Organizational Skills”, “Interpersonal Skills”, and “Initiative” are traits that employers have an equal preference for expecting versus wishing that students have had formal instruction. Other than teamwork, these skills can be classified generally as personal traits. These traits, while encouraged, are not normally taught or assessed in typical chemistry programs. Improving these skills requires feedback and personal reflection that are often difficult to incorporate given the technically dense material of the field. Some representative comments from respondents showcase the importance of work ethic, organD
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ization, and initiative and reemphasize the importance of these personal traits: “The most important traits I look for are positive attitude (no blame or negativity), strong work ethic, and attention to detail.” “... any BS who comes in with initiative will be valued.” “...motivation, leadership, teamwork, and strong communication and interpersonal skills are what will propel the student forward and upward in their careers.” Leadership had the lowest combined “Definitely Yes” and “No, But I Wish They Did” and the highest “Definitely No” and “No Opinion” of any skill (Table 2). To better understand why
or wish to have teamwork taught, applied, and assessed compared with 63% for leadership (Table 2). Although an incoming baseline of technical skills is important, many of these skills are learned on the job. Instead, it is the teamwork skills that are highly desired because they are viewed as being inadequate for new employees. Employers feel that they can more easily train for absent technical skills than compensate for poor interprofessional skills. Thus, it is the absence of formal instruction in teamwork that is being reflected by employers in this survey. Chemistry programs can address this need by incorporating foundational coursework and practice in true teamwork (not group work) to help their students succeed in the workforce.
Table 2. Percent of Employers Who Expect Explicit Training, Practical Experience, and Feedback/Evaluation of Nontechnical Skills
Relative Importance of Grade-Point Average, Teamwork, and Interpersonal Skills
Skill (N = 98) Interpersonal skills Teamwork Strong work ethic Initiative Organizational skills Leadership
% Definitely Yes
% No, But I Wish
% Yes + No, But I Wish
% Definitely No
% No Opinion
47
50
97
1
1
55 56
40 31
95 87
3 5
3 8
35 41
44 37
79 78
12 8
10 14
17
46
63
15
22
When survey respondents were asked which was more important, teamwork and interpersonal skills or GPA, 76% said that teamwork and interpersonal skills are most or more important than GPA, 23% said that GPA is equally important, and only 1% said that GPA is more important. The GPA is used mostly as a screening tool, as it indicates understanding of fundamental and applied material as well as work ethic. Respondents indicate that when they are culling resumes, GPA remains a preliminary screening tool for candidates. This result is in concordance with national surveys, which report that ∼70% of employers initially screen by GPA.18 Although some employers will accept and interview those with overall GPAs as low as 2.0 on a 4.0 scale, most employers seem to prefer at least a B average before they give a candidate a closer look. The average minimum cutoff was a 3.1 for overall GPA and 3.2 for in-major GPA. These GPA cutoffs are in good agreement with those for other fields, with the NACE job outlook survey reporting that 81% of employers had a cutoff of 3.0. Interestingly, in the open comments section of this survey, no respondents mentioned or discussed any aspect of GPA. Resumes can be used as more than a simple screening tool for employers. Research and internship opportunities can assist the prepared candidate in standing out from others. Opportunities and experiences can be highlighted on the resume in project descriptions or in candidate interviews. Respondents considered the interview the optimal time to assess a candidate’s interprofessional skills, but successful incorporation in a resume may assist in getting the opportunity to be interviewed: “Teamwork can also be demonstrated through participation in group research projects.” “To see the presence of teamwork, (candidate) needs to indicate activities beyond coursework that requires teamwork and specific active roles the person played.” “I look for mention of working with others.” “I ask the candidate to describe their role on the group project, how they contributed, what were the challenges unique to that situation, and how they helped to overcome those challenges.”
leadership is ranked lower than the other skills and the reason for the higher rankings of “Definitely No” and “No Opinion”, it was necessary to look at the comments. Many noted they did not expect new B.S.-level hires to have leadership skills, as these skills were acquired on the job, with experience, with interaction with leadership in the industry, or with further education. Typical comments include the following: “I expect no leadership from a new BS chemist.” “New BS need to learn the job before they can lead; experienced people don’t want to be led by a rookie who has no background.” “I do not expect leadership skills in BS hires. It is rare to find and it will be years before they will be put in a leadership role.” An interesting divergence between expected and desired skills can be seen when comparing Figures 1 (skills employers seek) and 2 (skills they expect instruction in). Employers strongly value interpersonal and teamwork skills, yet only slightly half expect formal instruction and evaluation in these areas. In contrast, the technical, analytical/quantitative, and communication skills, where employers expect formal instruction and evaluation, are not as highly valued. The six most-sought skills employers identified as ones that should have formal instruction are shown in Table 2. These skill encompass nontechnical, intrapersonal, and interpersonal skills. Furthermore, when these skills are compared to Figure 1 (skills employers find desirable), interpersonal skills and teamwork still lead, with intrapersonal skills still being strongly desired for formal teaching and application in coursework. These results indicate that teamwork skills are much more valued than leadership skills in new hires. Teamwork skills, ranked second, are much more preferred over leadership skills, ranked 12th (Table 1), and 95% of chemistry employers expect
Desire for a Leadership Minor
In response to an increase in leadership academic programs and the NACE survey’s high ranking of leadership on resumes, we explored the impact on employer’s perception of a student obtaining a Leadership minor. Survey respondents were asked “If a potential new hire’s resume has a Leadership Minor, emphasizing interpersonal and teamwork skills, which of the following traits would you assume the B.S.-Level candidate E
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possesses?” The percent “Yes” responses are listed in Table 3 along with the “Very Important” and “Somewhat Important”
courses and employers are using GPA as a key metric. An intertwining of a minor focusing on interprofessional skills with a major’s curriculum could prove to boost these skills and to enhance technical skills. Survey respondents were asked to rank how they prefer a B.S.-level candidate to have acquired teamwork and leadership experience: within the major, outside the major, within sports teams, or within the military. The NACE survey showed a preference for those who have held a leadership position or have been involved in extracurricular activities, with 57% of employers preferring to hire candidates with relevant work experience found in an internship or co-op. However, the chemistry-specific data herein show a much stronger preference for those who have experience in team-solved scientific problems: “within the major” had 93% of the respondents reporting important (22%) or most important (71%), whereas “outside the major” had 75% of the respondents reporting important (56%) or most important (19%) and only 17% and 16% reported sports teams and the military, respectively, as important or most important. Although universities tout varsity sports and military sciences as ways to practice and demonstrate teamwork and leadership skills, most employers in the sciences do not appear to share this interpretation. It is apparent from these results that chemistry employers desire their new hires to be formally trained in interprofessional skills and teamwork but also to practice and hone their skills in an environment that most closely resembles the working environment of their future profession. Programs should encourage students to participate in undergraduate research projects or apply for national and regional research internships.
Table 3. Employer Perceived Impact of New Hires’ Skills with a Leadership Minor versus the Importance of Those Skills % of Employers Who Believe Minor Has Impact
Importance Employers Place on the Specified Skill
Skill (N = 98)
% Yes
% Very Important (from Figure 1)
Interpersonal skills Teamwork Strong work ethic Problem solving skills Initiative Analytical/ quantitative skills Technical skills Oral communication skills Written communication skills Organizational skills Computer skills Leadership
93
90
10
94 54 61
83 79 68
15 18 28
68 33
55 44
33 47
35 81
42 41
49 53
64
41
53
71
31
46
33 79
15 13
53 33
% Somewhat Important
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CONCLUSION With 71% of companies reporting in national surveys that they have difficulty finding new B.S.-level hires with required interpersonal and teamwork skills, it is important to gather chemistry-specific data to understand the skills chemical employers desire. These survey results provide a better perspective of the specific skills gap that faces candidates in the chemical field. The chemical field values the skills of its new B.S.-level hires differently, especially when it comes to interpersonal, communication, and leadership skills. Chemical employers more heavily weight team experiences that relate candidates’ technical knowledge to applied scientific questions by means of undergraduate research or industrial internships. The evident disconnect between the skills employers desire and those they expect from their new hires’ formal instruction illustrates the need for the inclusion of interprofessional skills into the scientific curriculum. Early instruction of interprofessional skills should include opportunities to practice and evaluate skills in a scientific setting. With 90% of respondents identifying teamwork as being more important than leadership, the introduction and application of these lessons should emphasize teamwork and those interprofessional skills necessary to build effective teams. GPA is unquestionably used in the hiring process to screen applicants: a 3.1 GPA appears to be the typical cutoff. GPA serves as an indicator of the applicant’s foundational knowledge and ability to learn and apply new information. Although GPA is important, more than 75% of respondents indicated that teamwork and interpersonal skills are more highly sought than a strong GPA, with a strong work ethic, problem solving skills, and initiative still ahead of technical skills.
rankings employers place on each skill. There are clearly expectations that a Leadership Minor, which emphasizes interpersonal and teamwork skills, will also improve skills in initiative, oral communication, and organizational skills in addition to the obvious teamwork, interpersonal, and leadership skills. Interestingly, “Strong Work Ethic”, a “Very Important” trait for a new hire, is not seen to be strongly affected by a Leadership Minor and more indicated by the student’s GPA and in-major GPA and ability to highlight in-major internships or research experiences. Clearly leadership skills would be expected, but they do not appear to be strongly desired, as discussed earlier. Oral communication, written communication, and organizational skills are assumed to be strongly improved by the completion of a leadership minor (Table 3) but are only moderately ranked as important skills (Table 1). When survey respondents were asked, “Would you consider a B.S.-Level candidate more, if they earned a minor in Teamwork and Leadership, that emphasized interpersonal and teamwork skills, along with their scientific degree?”, 18% strongly agreed, 35% agreed, 32% were neutral, 13% disagreed, and 2% strongly disagreed. For such a leadership minor to be worthwhile to students, an institution would need to publicize the skillset acquired by those in the minor and train students to highlight it and their improved skill set on resumes and in interviews. As indicated by Table 3, such a minor should focus on developing interpersonal and teamwork skills, initiative, oral communication, organizational skills, and basic leadership skills. We assume that the technical skills are lower ranked among these responses because these skills are acquired from in-major F
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(10) Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century; Pellegrino, J. W., Hilton, M. L., Eds.; The National Academies Press: Washington, DC, 2012. (11) Rider, R.; Klaeysen, C. Employer Perspectives on Soft Skills: 2014 Survey Report; Washington State Human Resources Council (WSHRC): Olympia, WA, 2015; http://wastatecouncil.shrm.org/ sites/wastatecouncil.shrm.org/files/ Soft%20Skill%20Survey%20Rpt%20-%20Sum%20of%20Findings%20%20031615.pdf (accessed December 2016). (12) Undergraduate Professional Education in Chemistry: ACS Guidelines and Evaluation Procedures for Bachelor’s Degree Programs; American Chemical Society: Washington, D.C., 2008; https://www. acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/about/governance/committees/ training/acsapproved/degreeprogram/2008-acs-guidelines-forbachelors-degree-programs.pdf (accessed December 2016). (13) Rovner, S. L.; Wang, L. New-Grad Salaries and Employment. Chem. Eng. News 2015, 93 (26), 27−29. (14) Wang, L. Closing the Skills Gap. Chem. Eng. News 2012, 90 (24), 49−51. (15) Klocko, D. L.; Krumwiede, K. H.; Olivares-Urueta, M.; Williamson, J. W. Development, Implementation, and Short-term Effectiveness of an Interprofessional Education course in a School of Health Professions. J. Allied Health 2012, 41, 14−20. (16) Headrick, K. L. Want Ads, Job Skills, and Curriculum: A Survey of 1998 Chemistry Help-Wanted Ads. J. Chem. Educ. 2001, 78, 1281− 1282. (17) Qualtrics Survey Software Home Page. http://www.qualtrics. com (accessed December 2016). (18) Job Outlook 2016; National Association of Colleges and Employers: Bethlehem, PA, 2016; https://www.mccormick. northwestern.edu/career-development/documents/getting-started/ job-search/NACE%20Job%20Outlook%202016.pdf (accessed December 2016). (19) Seattle Jobs Initiative. Opening Doors: Soft Skills. http://www. seattlejobsinitiative.com/opening-doors-soft-skills/ (accessed December 2016). (20) (a) Berrett, D. Instructional Design: Demand Grows for a New Breed of Academic. Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb 29, 2016; http://chronicle.com/article/Instructional-Design/235425 (accessed December 2016). (b) Berrett, D.; Hoover, E. College Freshmen Seek Financial Security Amid Emotional Insecurity. Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb 5, 2015; http://chronicle.com/article/CollegeFreshmen-Seek/151645/ (accessed December 2016). (21) (a) Duhigg, C. What Google Learned from its Quest to Build the Perfect Team. The New York Times Magazine, Feb 25, 2016; https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-googlelearned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html?_r=1 (accessed December 2016). (b) Schultz, H.; Schultz, S. Connecting Young People with Jobs. The New York Times, Feb 5, 2015; http://www. nytimes.com/2015/07/13/opinion/connecting-young-people-withjobs.html (accessed December 2016). (22) (a) Jackman, J. A.; Cho, D.; Lee, J.; Chen, J. M.; Besenbacher, F.; Bonnell, D. A.; Hersam, M. C.; Weiss, P. S.; Cho, N. Nanotechnology Education for the Global World: Training the Leaders of Tomorrow. ACS Nano 2016, 10, 5595−5599. (b) Hinkle, A.; Krannich, L. Leadership Training Sustains the Workforce and ACS. Chem. Eng. News 2012, 90 (45), 39.
Programs that provide students explicit teaching, reflection, and evaluation of interpersonal skills will enhance B.S. Chemistry students’ marketability. The survey results show that the inclusion of a leadership minor would add little to a candidate’s resume. To address the needs of employers, effective teamwork and communication skills can be achieved when a strong foundation of interprofessional skills has been taught and applied in scientific settings. Students should be taught how to emphasize these experiences, through items like undergraduate research, on their resumes and in interviews.
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ASSOCIATED CONTENT
* Supporting Information S
The Supporting Information is available on the ACS Publications website at DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b00566. Copy of the survey (PDF)
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. ORCID
Justin D. Fair: 0000-0003-0305-5114 Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors thank the National Science Foundation for a grant supporting curricular enhancements (1625429) and the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, IUP, for survey support.
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REFERENCES
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b00566 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
