They are necessary for career success at all levels of employment and for all levels of education. The U.S. Department of Labor, which supported the ASTD study through a grant, then established the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills. Teaching and learning these skills are not only consistent with the emerging needs of a world economy in a high-performance work environment. Tasks and jobs are integrated through broad job definitions or cross-functional teams. Workers are given more initiative and take more responsibility.
Employees solve problems in nonroutine situations.
There is an emphasis on continuous improvement. Workers are expected to understand their functions within the context of the broader purposes of the organization. A total of 142 pilot schools in 13 states of a 19-state region are working toward developing individual student rubrics for instructor evaluation of progress in each of the 5 areas. Its database, which is the replacement for the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, contains information about employability skills for each job title. Considerably more research is needed on creating and assessing curriculum that integrates the learning of employability skills contextually.