Introduction

NACE

College graduates should be able to contribute to their highest potential to the productivity of
themselves,their organization, community and country at large when they join the work force.

This however can not be achieved without the acquisation of certain skills by the graduates, one
of which is career readiness that contains a set of competiencies and capabilities that makes
them competent, effective and effiecient in their work.

Before discussing in detail about career readiness however we first would define what career
readiness is. National Association of Colleges and Employers defines career readiness as the
acquisation and demonstration of core competiencies among individuals that are required for
success in the workplace and lifelong career managment. It has included eight criterias to assess
and qualify college students's career readiness. These competiencies are career and self-
development, communication, crtical thinking, equity and inclusion, leadership,
professionalism, teamwork and technology.

career and self-development is the ability of oneself to actively and continually develop self and
career through learning, being aware of one's strenghts and weaknesses, navigating the career
opportunities and creating networks to build relationships with in and outside the organization
they are in. Characters of students with this quality include have capabilities to identify areas of
growth while accepting and applying the feedbacks, can develop plans and goals for their future
career, will advocate for themselves as well as others ethically, will demonstarte curiosity and
look for opportunities to learn, are voluntarily participating in furher education and trainings to
support one's career.

The other qualities under career readiness forwarded by ---- was communication; which is the
ability of the individual to clearly and effectively exchange ideas,information,facts, and
perspectives with other individuals, units or communities both inside and outside the
organization. Employees with these qualities will show and demonstrate the following
characters but not limited to it; they understand and transmit proper and professional
verbal,written and non-verbal language, they employ active listening, persuasion and
influencing skills, they have the capability to frame the information and communication with
diversity, cultural diferences and individual varieties in communication in mind, they ask proper
and respectful questions and inform others promptly and timely when needing guidance or
transferring one.

The other characterstics within career readiness is an abilty of the employee to demonstrate
critical thinking to detect, decide and respond to needs based on rational and sound
understanding, reasoning and judgment of the situation and logical analysis with relevant
information. They have multiple sources of information that puts the lived experiences and
perspectives of the diverse population to fully understand the problem and proactively
anticipate certain need and have an ability to prioritize actions. They are able to effectively
summarize and interpret the data they get with being aware of their own personal biases that
could impact the outcome. They can well communicate their rationale and process for their
decision properly.

Career ready graduates should be equit and inclusive, that is \'2722demonstrate the awareness,
attitude, knowledge, and skills required to equitably engage and include people from different
local and global cultures. Engage in anti-racist practices that

actively challenge the systems, structures, and policies of racism.\'2722 Employees with this
character will be able to get and utilize a feedback from diverse cultural views and actively
advocate and contribute for the inclusivity and equitable practices in and beyond the
organization. They are eager to interact and learn from the experiences of different
demographic groups . They are always open to a novel idea of thinking and ideas, in that they
make it they role to elimianate barriers and offer their services to adress systemic racism,
inequities and bisases they perceive.

Leadership with the aim of recognizing and capitalizing on the identified individual and group
strenghts to achieve the organization's goals is another character of career readiness. They are
therfore able to inspire, motivate, persuade, seek resources, ideas, and innovative ideas to
achieve the shared and agreed visions. They should also be able to plan,organize, equip, start,
monitor and evaluate projects with the goal of accomplishing the objective with utmost quality,
integretity and fullness.

Professionalism is needed as well to be career ready in one's journey. They should act with
much integrety and accountability to self, others, organization and beyond. Professionals often
have their own personal brand that aligns with their job, values and workplace. They are
consistently prepared,attentive, dependable and ready to fulfill their responsibilities and
expectations exceedingly.

To be career ready one has to be able to effectively and efficiently work in a team with a
common purpose and goals with giving the proper appreciation and regards to different views
and shared repsonsibilities. They should therefore be capable to listen, compromise and take
the time to understand others. They are equiped to resolve conflicts ad ambiguities that might
arise in a team. They are able to collaborate and build a healthy professional working
relationship with each members of a team that should enable free flow of ideas, feedbacks,
corrections, and identification of errors without blaming.

Career readiness is not complete without the skills to utilize, adapt and manage the
everchanging technologies to increase efficiency and productivity.

Badillo-Amador & Vila(2013) and Mateos-Romero & Salinas-Jimenez(2018) have pointed that
failure to equip graduates with the necessary skils , attributes, and competiencies can have
adverse consequences such as unemployment, low wages, job dissatisfaction, low productivity,
and less competitiveness of a given economy as stated on.(St Ary bOOK citation)