Abstract
One of the goals of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is to prepare their graduates to be workplace ready. Previous studies have established a connection between work-ready graduates and sustained economic growth (Clarke, 2018). In periods of economic growth, employers can seek employees who have well-developed transferable skills in areas beyond the discipline (Huang, Fisher, Ding, and Guo, 2021), yet there is no single set of skills that employers want from graduates (Maxwell and Armellini, 2018). Nonetheless, in periods of economic uncertainty and unpredictable labor markets, employers may adopt different measures or criteria for recruitment (Clarke, 2018), and potential employees may seek work elsewhere. The Covid-19 pandemic epitomizes the most significant moment of uncertainty the global economy has ever witnessed. At present, with the ever-changing sanitary conditions and new waves of Covid-19, there is a lack of information on the necessary skills for workplace success or the future of the workplace (in general). Since early 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has affected all industries worldwide. Airplanes were grounded, travel was halted, and many professionals were furloughed or, simply, out of work. During this time, some of these professionals converted to other industries or retrained for new opportunities and are not prepared to routine to their ‘old’ jobs or ‘traditional ways of working. The previous dilemma of retaining talent has been overshadowed by the need to attract talented graduates to work in specific industries. Thus, the purpose of this ongoing research project is three-fold: 1) to identify the employability skills necessary to flourish in a post-Covid-19 workplace, particularly in STEM disciplines, , 2) to attempt to fill the gap between STEM graduate student perspectives and employers’ perspectives, and 3) to make a stronger link between STEM HEIs and the real world. In this developmental paper, we will focus on an initial reflection on the first objective, i.e., identifying the skills needed to be successful in the 21st century workplace.