Join Jamie Gillan and Matthew Decker, Montgomery College English professors and co-coordinators of the Digital Storytelling Internship, and Eve Elias Stowell, a Montgomery College student and DS Internship aluma, to explore the use of digital storytelling as a pedagogical tool and classroom strategy to foster student engagement, improve writing skills, increase technological skills, develop self-confidence, and promote community.

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 2017.
Effective teamwork skills are essential for success in an increasingly team-based workplace. However, research suggests that there is often confusion concerning how teamwork is measured and assessed, making it difficult to develop these skills in undergraduate curricula. The goal of the present study was to develop a sustainable tool for assessing individual teamwork skills, with the intention of refining and measuring these skills over time. Preliminary evidence suggests that teamwork skills improve over time when taught and assessed, providing support for the continued application of the Team-Q as a tool for developing teamwork skills in undergraduate education.

Source: What Works Clearinghouse. 2021.
Because of the emphasis on career pathways in CTE programs for the past decade and the availability of rigorous evaluation results on this topic, this practice guide is focused on community college-based CTE interventions through the lens of career pathways. This guide draws upon studies of interventions that include one or more of the career pathways components defined under the WIOA. It focuses on promising interventions where there is evidence of improved educational or labor market outcomes. This guide provides community colleges with five specific recommendations for supporting occupational skills training through career pathways.

Source: Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences. 2019.
Reforms taking place in the educational process of higher professional school impose new requirements on the quality of training students. Today, graduates of higher educational institutions are required to have new professional thinking, high mobility, competence, tolerance and focus on intra-group activities carried out in teams. With the team form of the organisation of training, an environment is created that allows students to master not only the skills and abilities of business interaction and cooperation, but also to form their ability to think critically, which includes the ability to think creatively, use new information and apply the knowledge in practice.

Source: Journal of Technology Education. Fall 2020.
This study looks at Purdue University's Integrated First-Year Experience of Design Thinking in Technology, Fundamentals of Speech Communication, and First-Year Composition and its effects on oral communication. We examined whether this three-course integration inspired by writing-across-the-curriculum and communication-across-the-curriculum would lead students to develop more effective oral communication skills than a nonintegrated course.

International Journal of Higher Education. 2021.
Higher Education systems need to undergo significant transformation to produce graduates who are highly skilled and prepared for their roles in the impending workforce. Despite an improvement in university throughput rates, unemployment remains predominantly high, which could be attributed to the misalignment between mandatory workplace skills and those possessed by graduates. The focus of the study was on the exploration of skills acquired from the new General Education modules introduced into the curriculum of undergraduate programmes. Hence, the study discovered learners' perspectives on the relevance of the skills acquired from these modules in the undergraduate programme to ensure survival in the workforce. The methodology adopted in the study was a quantitative survey research design, using the questionnaire as the data collection tool from a census of the first-year learners registered in the undergraduate programme. The results provided significant evidence to support the view that the skills acquired from the General Education modules in the undergraduate programme are indispensable in industry and enhanced critical thinking of the learners.

Source: College Quarterly. 2019.
This paper calls for a reexamination of the kind of transferable business communication skills that new graduates require as they enter the workforce. Market needs are studied as the focal point for developing relevant exercises to train towards workplace communication competence.

Education Sciences. 2021.
Globalization, digitalization, and the permanent alteration of information have led to important changes in the world of work. This demands a realignment of essential skills in order to access job positions in the coming years. In order to face up to the digitalization process, education is one of the ambits that has most come to a tipping point. This adds an urgency to the need to bring skills in line with the new demands of the job market and the challenges posed in the 21st Century. The methodology was based on a systematic review of the most commonly-used databases. It analyzed and synthesized the existing information on the skills required for the future job market and educational proposals to facilitate their acquisition. At the beginning of the search, 2045 records were selected. However, following the application of the exclusion criteria, a total of 63 records were included. From this in-depth analysis, it was uncovered that the most in-demand skill for the job market relates to the management of technology. Different proposals were located which targeted these skills in educational settings. The majority of these pertained to innovative projects emanating from digital and technological phenomena.

IUP Journal of Soft Skills. Dec 2018.
In the study of career success in a rapidly changing world, the importance of preparing established career professionals for increased success as they transition from roles and/or organizations has increased. Measuring success in careers has also changed. In this field of study, intrinsic variables are now perceived as important as the extrinsic as we move forward and consider the whole personal and life-span development in addition to the extrinsic, objective measurements predominant in the past. The paper is a study of the efficacy of an online graduate program designed to prepare students with the mindfulness, dialogue, collaboration, and communication skills necessary for the 21st century global workplace.

Source: Consortium for Policy Research in Education. 2017.
Numerous countries suffer from a shortage of technicians and skilled workers, particularly in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), due to a mismatch between the skills and interests of the students graduating from or leaving the current education system and the needs of the labor market. Often, parents and students place a high priority on entering and completing university, and as a consequence, many students pursue academic education in secondary schools in order to gain entrance to university, only to find themselves entering the job market lacking the skills they need for employment and advancement. Further, in some countries, the vocational school system is not well-respected by the public and focuses heavily on preparation of youth for specific jobs in one firm rather than preparing them for careers within an industry as a whole. This literature review aims to synthesize the research evidence about the effectiveness of various strategies used by national governments, non-governmental organizations, technical schools, and industries to strengthen both the quality of the technical workforce, as well as the avenues through which individuals can access career and technical programming.

Source: Education Week. 3/3/2021.
The article discusses key job skills students need post-pandemic. Topics include agility and flexibility; growth mindset and resilience; teamwork and collaboration; and learn to learn.

Source: Education Week. 9/26/2018.
The article discusses workplace writing. It is noted that industry professionals consider written communication skills as the most important for new employees and despite new academic standards that encourage more writing, educators find writing instruction inconsistent.

The activities in this section focus on the process of networking and its relevance and importance to career development. Participants will learn about taking initiative and overcoming fear, informational interviewing, as well as potential guidelines to consider when using social networks, texting, and email for networking purposes.

The activities in this section seek to teach participants about the importance of enthusiasm and a positive attitude in the workplace. Participants will hear strategies for turning negative thinking into positive thinking and displaying and discussing enthusiasm during an interview and on the job.

The activities in this section focus on each of the five individual soft skills presented in this publication (communication, enthusiasm/attitude, teamwork, networking, and problem solving/critical thinking), but in a broader framework. This is because professionalism, is not one skill but the blending and integration of a variety of skills.

The activities in this section focus on learning how to solve problems in a variety of ways in the workplace. Participants will hear about how to properly tell the difference among criticism, praise, and feedback and reacting appropriately. The section will also review strategies for making ethical decisions, solving problems on a team with others, and learning how to take into account others' perceptions when assessing actions or statements in the workplace.

The activities in this section seek to teach participants about the importance of teamwork to workplace success and the specific role each individual on a team may play. Participants will learn about positive teamwork behavior and discover how their own conduct can impact others on a team.