Employers told Cornell University researchers that new college graduates lack certain skills.

Research shows that older workers possess such skills because of their experience.

Work provides many benefits, making it good for everyone regardless of age.

Cornell University recently released a report on the future of the American university. Among the many interesting findings in the report was the revelation that employers found new graduates lacking in certain abilities that make a good employee. It wasn’t that the new hires didn’t understand how to do their jobs; in this respect, they were fully qualified. It was rather that the new employees did not possess the “softer” skills that were essential for workers to have in an organization. Specifically, employers said that recent graduates were less than adequately prepared to deal with ambiguity, face criticism, bounce back from failure, and work with colleagues who saw a situation differently.

As the report stated:

"Employers and those who represent their perspectives consistently reported that American graduates, whatever their specialized knowledge, arrive in the workplace without some of the professional capacities the workplace demands. This feedback, corroborated by a National Association of Colleges and Employers survey on employer perceptions of proficiency gaps among recent graduates, centers not on disciplinary knowledge, but on the interpersonal and dispositional skills that allow that disciplinary knowledge to be deployed effectively. These include the ability to handle uncertainty and solve problems that do not have clear answers, a readiness to absorb critical feedback and recover from setbacks, and working in teams that require compromise with others who do not share their perspective or assumptions. While these........

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