Workplace-Readiness Skills Necessary for Student Success in the Workforce as Perceived by Alabama Secondary Cooperative Education Teacher-Coordinators

Abstract

This study was designed to determine (a) the extent to which Alabama Secondary Cooperative Education Teacher-Coordinators perceive specific workplace-readiness skills are important for student success in the workplace; (b) whether or not statistical significance is found between / among the following four variables in the Cooperative Education Teacher-Coordinators perception of the level of importance of specific workplace-readiness skills for employability: teaching experience, area of teaching certificate, class of professional educator certificate, location; and (c) what employer support, if any, plays a role in incorporating workplace-readiness skill learning activities into the Cooperative Education Seminar required course components. A survey was developed and distributed to Alabama Cooperative Education Teacher-Coordinators. Each educator was asked to assess the degree of perceived importance of specific workplace-readiness skills. Additionally, these Cooperative Education Teacher-Coordinators were asked to indicate the extent they integrate workplace-readiness skill learning activities into the Cooperative Education Seminar, and what employer support methods are used to enhance the workplace-readiness learning activities in the Cooperative Education Seminar. Forty-five (45%) of the sample (n=139) of Cooperative Education Teacher-Coordinators responded to the online Qualtrics survey. Each of the twenty-four specific workplace-readiness skills included yielded a high mean score (M ≥ 4.08), the scale consisted of the following choices: (5) = Very Important through (1) = Unimportant, indicating that Alabama Cooperative Education Teacher-Coordinators perceive all twenty-four skills to be important. Statistical significance at the .05 level was found between categories of specific workplace-readiness skills as perceived by Cooperative Education Teacher-Coordinators. The extent of inclusion of workplace-readiness skill learning activities in the Cooperative Education Seminar yielded a mean score (M ≥ 3.00), the scale consisted of the following choices: (5) = To a Great Extent through (1) = Not at All; indicating that Cooperative Education Teacher-Coordinators are integrating workplace-readiness learning activities at or above a moderate extent. Statistical significance at the .05 level was found between categories of workplace-readiness skill learning activities. Strong positive correlations were found among most of the methods of employer support and learning activity categories indicating employer support is being utilized to enhance workplace-readiness learning activities in the Cooperative Education Seminar.