Employability Skills Valued by Employers as Important for Entry-Level Employees With and Without Disabilities

an article by Song Ju, MAT and Dalun Zhang, PhD (Texas A&M University, College Station, USA and Jacqueline Pacha, MA (Brazos Valley Center for Independent Living, Bryan, TX, USA) published in Career Development and Transition for Exceptional Individuals Volume 35 Number 1 (May 2012)

Abstract

Individuals with disabilities face persistent challenges in gaining meaningful employment. One of the barriers to successful employment is a lack of employability skills. The purpose of this study was to identify employability skills that employers value as being important and to examine whether employers have different expectations for individuals with and without disabilities.

One hundred sixty-eight employers from different industries participated in this survey study. Employers considered certain skills as essential for all entry-level employees; however, there were noticeable differences between employers’ expectations for employees with and without disabilities.

Different expectations were also found between male and female respondents and between employers from service/business areas and those from science/technology areas.

Implications of study findings are discussed.

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