Workers Can't Find Jobs, Jobs Can't Find Workers: Solving The Talent Paradox

The purpose of the research was to understand the latest job skill requirements for undergraduates from the real world as perceived by the students themselves and their career counselors at a university in South Florida. The study intended to provide relevant inputs to enhance the marketability of the undergraduate students by seamless transformation of students from "learning to earning" stage in life by using two interventions, de Bono's Six Thinking Skills and Covey's 7 Habits. The study sought to understand the perceptions and practices of the undergraduate students and the career counselors in relation to the de Bono (1985) thinking skills and Covey's 7 Habits (1989) and the extent to which such awareness would help in their lives after college graduation. The study may provide useful insights into the nature of self-development not only to the students but also to the educators and the program developers in developing appropriate pedagogical reform initiatives. This study found that many students were unaware of the de Bono's Six Thinking Hats and Covey's 7 Habits models. The findings of this study support the hypothesis that there is a positive relationship between use of components of the two interventional models, namely, de Bono's Six Thinking Hats and Covey's 7 Habits, and bridging the skill-gap of undergraduate students. However, the application of these two models at the undergraduate level has been an exception rather than a rule.