Unlocking Power Skills for Career Success [Infographic]

Power skills is a 'buzz phrase' you may have heard over the past year but carries increasing significance for ensuring career success in emerging talent. Power skills combine interpersonal, intercultural, and soft skills that help an individual succeed. Without equipping young people with these skills, they will not be ready for the workforce. 

According to the NACE 2023 Job Outlook report, when comparing the importance to proficiency ratings of recent college graduates, large gaps are evident in the top two competencies employers rate most important (communication and critical thinking). Another large gap appears in professionalism competency, with 91.2% of employers rating it very or extremely important and just 48.6% rating graduates as very or extremely proficient.

The infographic below dives into what employers hold in high regard as top skills for graduates and the subsequent gaps that appear. Virtual Internships prioritizes the development of these power skills in program participants, as seen by the below data.

It's now more important than ever to prepare young people for the evolving workforce, whether that be considering the 97 million emerging jobs of the future, the impact that AI will have on the existence of roles in the next five years, or preparing young people with the skills they need to succeed in a remote working environment. We dived into the impact of work-integrated learning experience on employment pathways below.

Read more: The Importance of Internships for Employment