Effective Education for Employment :: Evidence - Qualities Valued By Employers

Key Global Evidence: Qualities Valued by Employers

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It is vital, if we are to address the issues in front of us, to understand the particular characteristics employers are looking for when they recruit. We have asked this question in each of the target countries surveyed. Here we list the common qualities employers have said they are looking for in job candidates and employees. We hope that being clear about these qualities will give a clearer understanding of the importance of effective education for employment.

The Concept

Employers typically expect employees to have:

knowledge: sufficient relevant information to perform a job role
skills: the practical ability to perform a job role effectively
behaviours: the aptitude to perform what needs doing at the right time and in the right way.

The following diagram provides a graphical representation of this.

We call such groupings of knowledge, skills and behaviours 'qualities'. We can define a set of qualities relevant to any person, in any job, in any industry and in any country.

Feedback From Research Groups

The concept of qualities valued by employers was referenced at each of the round-table meetings and in primary research questionnaires. The response was universally positive.

Although many of those taking part initially felt that it was impossible to identify a set of generic attributes that would be valuable for any job in any sector, with further exploration it became clear that this is indeed possible. In fact, one of the most striking findings across the whole of the research was the commonality of these transferable qualities. They include: