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The purpose of this paper is to use the authors’ prior findings concerning basic employability skills in order to determine which skills best predict career advancement potential.

Utilizing survey responses of human resource managers, the employability skills showing the largest relationships to career advancement were used in a regression analysis. The regression results generated structural equation models.

According to human resource managers, leadership skills and information technology skills needed for job performance were shown to be significant contributors to recent graduates’ career advancement potential. Work ethic and critical thinking skills were found to be closely linked with leadership skills. Additionally, management skills, leadership skills, and basic literacy and numeracy skills received from recent graduates by their employers were found to be the strongest predictors of graduates’ career advancement potential.

The research study was limited to graduates, faculty, and recruiters at a business school in southern California. Further studies can determine whether differences in attitudes from those found in this study might exist.

It is important that students develop basic employability skills prior to entering the workforce, since remedial training on the job could impede career advancement.

Those graduates who show deficiencies in the skills that are viewed by employers to be predictors of advancement are likely to experience difficulties with career growth.

The first part of this study utilized a triangular approach to survey three distinct groups of respondents – graduates, the faculty who taught them, and the human resource managers who recruited them – concerning their attitudes toward basic employability skills. In this second part of the study, the novelty utilized was structural equation modelling, which highlighted those skills that are most critical to career advancement.

This paper seeks to examine the basic employability skills needed for job performance, the reception of these skills in college, and the need for additional training in these skills after graduation.

The research was based on a triangular design approach, in which the attitudes of three distinct groups – recent graduates, the faculty who taught them, and human resource managers who recruit them – were studied. The participants responded to a survey that included 47 items measuring eight dimensions of basic employability skills.

The study revealed considerable differences in opinion among the three groups with regard to the skills needed for job performance, the skills received by college graduates, and the additional training needed.

The research study was limited to graduates, faculty, and recruiters at a business school in southern California. It is suggested that further studies be conducted to determine whether differences in attitudes from those found in this study might exist.

Although the respondents identified the importance of leadership skills, these skills were noted to be below expectations for industry. Moreover, the need for additional training of recent graduates appears to be a major concern according to the results.

In a highly competitive economy, there is little chance that unprepared graduates will be successful in obtaining employment and then performing their jobs.

The triangular approach taken in this study validates the importance of the interconnectedness among graduates, faculty, and industry. It is therefore imperative to strengthen the communication across these groups to ensure adequate preparation of graduates.