Employers complain about communication skills

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | Sunday, February 06, 2005 | Jim McKay

[Willie Green]

Bosses say biggest failing among college graduates, job applicants is inability to speak and write effectively

They have cell phones, BlackBerries and Palm Pilots and live by instant messaging and the Internet. Yet many graduating college students get bad grades from employers for their communications skills.

When Debra Vargulish recruits on college campuses for Kennametal Inc., for example, the students she meets are often inarticulate and shy.

"They seem to be way better at using technology than older people. It's actually the content that is missing," said Vargulish, a training administrator at the Latrobe-based global tooling company. "A lot of them don't know what to say at all, and that's not good."

[Willie Green]

Gotta get back to teaching the basics.

[stylin19a]

wait til they get hired and find out it's the "dilbert" bosses that can't communicate.

[independentmind]

They have cell phones, BlackBerries and Palm Pilots and live by instant messaging and the Internet. Yet many graduating college students get bad grades from employers for their communications skills.

Two weeks ago, I had this very conversation with the head of the firm where I work. The problem in particular is writing skills.

[Edgewood Pilot]

Thank you for the post.

It's printed out and on the family bulletin board in an attempt to COMMUNICATE the importance employers place on skillful communication.

[durasell]

k;jhdfskjhfdk askjhdsfahjdfs a kjlkdjdf!!!!!!!

[atomicpossum]

A pertinent question might be why are they getting out of college without the basic skills they should have developed around seventh grade?

[nmh]

I take it Ebonics and slang aren't big hits?

LOL!

Liberals will do anything to make people unemployable when their done their liberal indoctrination program at the local public school.

[durasell]

Because the skills aren't valued. They aren't seen as having any immediate application in the kid's career.

[jslade]

Liberals will do anything to make people unemployable when their they're done (with) their liberal indoctrination program at the local public government school.

[Prov3456]

The current state of public education is at fault. For a generation or more, we have not wanted to hurt the students' feelings by telling them that an answer was wrong, so we just told them, "Aawwwwwwwwwww, that's nice. Try again."

In short, it's "social promotion" and feel-good, faddish teaching methods.

My prediction is that this problem will get much worse before it gets better.

[durasell]

The ability to write is just another skill that will weed out the stars from the "not ready for prime time."

[Polybius]

"They seem to be way better at using technology than older people. It's actually the content that is missing," said Vargulish, a training administrator at the Latrobe-based global tooling company. "A lot of them don't know what to say at all, and that's not good."

Why that's...that's....

I just don't know what to say.

[anniegetyourgun]

Don't get me started...

[Clemenza]

Very true. I've had many experiences with superiors who couldn't write their way out of a Mad Lib, let alone a marketing report.

This has been going on for years.

[LS]

When I ask students questions in class, I insist that they answer in a complete sentence, and if they say the word, "like," I give a big buzzer noise. After a while, they can actually speak!

[Redleg Duke]

In your dreams, Dude, in your dreams!

I have been "in-harness" for 35 years this June and I have seen the pathetic results of college education. People who cannot hang a cogent sentence together for their lives...and they are proud of it! The problem, in my opinion, is that they are just too lazy to write, edit, rewrote, reedit and prepare a final product. On top of that, the pathetic abbreviations that pass for communications on the web that are inserted into memos is outrageous. I have one employee, who is in his 60s, who I have to keep reminding that his use of these abbreviations is not only inappropriate, but confusing.

[Uncle Miltie]

"The problem in particular is writing skills."

Here's a deconstruction of a U.S. Senator's rant in today's paper:

Dear Editors:

I think North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan called for a tax increase to fix Social Security in Sunday’s Forum. I’ll let you try to figure it out. Dorgan wrote exactly the following:

“Even the estimated shortfall under some of the most pessimistic projections could be fixed just be repealing the tax that has been given to those with incomes over roughly $500,000 a year. So, it’s a question of priorities and values: Save Social Security for America’s elderly, or tax breaks for those that make more than half a million dollars a year? We should do the right thing!”

“Could be fixed just be repealing the tax that has been given” is unintelligible gibberish. First, why the word “be” appears twice is beyond me. Second, the wording makes it unclear whether he is calling for repealing or increasing a tax. Third, what exactly is a “tax that has been given”? One can “levy,” “increase,” or “cut” taxes, but rarely is a tax “given.” If Senator Dorgan is “giving” taxes, I will respectfully decline his gift. Fourth, to which tax is he referring: income, death, or Social Security taxes?

Next, Senator Dorgan makes a statement in the form of “It’s a question of X or Y.” Why is that statement followed by a question mark rather than a period? If it is just an improperly formed question, perhaps he could entertain us with his answer. I suppose his answer is “Do the right thing!”, an unexplained exclamation. The tortured punctuation of these two sentences reflects an unhinged emotion, lack of cogent reasoning, and insufficient primary education that reflects poorly on our State.

Regardless, we all know that Senator Dorgan’s rant means “TAX INCREASE!” because the Democrats’ reflexive answer to toenail fungus would be “TAX INCREASE!”

To save Social Security for our children and grandchildren, there is no tax increase big enough to fill the hole. When inevitable demographics result in one worker per retiree, shall we tax the worker at 100% to fulfill Senator Dorgan’s pipe dream? When the 100% taxed worker starves, who will the Senator tax next?

I recommend Senator Dorgan review rudimentary demographics, mathematics, and English and develop a logical, well written proposal that doesn’t tax our grandchildren to death.

Sincerely,

Brad Cloven

[Osage Orange]

The Post-Gazette needs to interview the administrator where I work. She's a first class educated idiotic moron.....

How's that for commmunicating?

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Three things make a good writer: reading a lot (for both content and for style models), practice, and feedback.

They can do this in classes, or they can do this on their own.

But composition teachers and others who teach writing are often low-man on the status-of-teacher totem pole, both in pay and respect (with the vast majority of composition instructors never reaching tenure, and treated like the temps they are, with low pay, no chance for advancement, and few benefits, who get cut loose every three to five years to find another position. It's often a case of you get what you pay for. Many classes are taught by grad students, too.) Instructors, as opposed to professors, often have class loads of 100 - 150 students a semester, with paper grading loads of 200-300 papers that have to be read personally, and commented on in a way that ought to help the student. This work, unlike math and many other subjects, cannot be passed off to a TA. The instructor may still feel feel driven to try to do the "publish or perish" thing and be active in committee work in the often vain hope they might get put on the tenure track.

Because of the sweatshop mentality in composition classes, you frequently get training that is inadequate. The students don't want to do it, the faculty who aren't teaching it remember how they didn't want to do it, either, but they know there is a real need for students to be able to write with some competency, so they give in on some points and keep the programs alive, if not sufficiently funded, and try to get the high schools to do more prep work.

And then employers complain that their workers come in unable to write adequately.
You often get what you pay for. We don't want to put in the time and effort necessary, in things like reading and teaching reasoning, so we get what we get.

[independentmind]

You'd best be careful if you start criticizing our elected officials' communication skills. Dorgan isn't the only one that garbles his sentences.:)