Employability skills required by the 21st-century workplace: a literature review of labour market demand

This paper discusses the importance of employability skills of graduates in entering the workforce according to employers' perceptions, through a literature review. In 21st century workplace, the occupation-specific skills are no longer sufficient for graduates to meet the needs of labour markets. Workers are nowadays expected to have an additional set of skills and attributes, called employability skills. Employability skills become a very important issue at the national, regional, and international labour market. The literature review found a number of employability skills attribute required by graduates in entering the workforce. Communication skills, problem-solving and decision-making skills, and teamwork skills are the attributes of employability skills with highest importance level. Graduates are also expected to have a number of personal attributes included: self-awareness, self-confidence, independence, emotional intelligence, flexibility and adaptability, stress tolerance, creativity and initiative, willingness to learn, reflectiveness, lifelong learning, and professional behaviour.