July 26, 2022

YouScience National Student Ability Report Discovers Gap Between Student Aptitudes and Workforce Needs

Y YouScience, a leading student engagement platform, has released a new national report titled "State of the Future US Workforce: Student Ability Report." According to the findings, students have the aptitudes, or talent, to excel in today's in-demand jobs, but they frequently lack interest in these fields, in some cases due to a lack of knowledge about available careers.

The findings of the report are based on an analysis of anonymized data from the YouScience Discovery aptitude test, which was taken by 239,843 male and female high school students in the United States during the 2021 school year.

According to the findings of the report, there is an urgent need to address this career exposure gap. As a result, it can assist students in pursuing an educational path that leads to career success.

…we know students have the talent, but they are not being adequately exposed to the career pathways wherein they possess natural skills and where they have the most potential to thrive…

The students come from all 50 states. YouScience Discovery uncovers students' aptitudes through psychometrically valid brain games-like exercises combined with an inventory of interests. Aptitude assessments, as opposed to interest-only surveys, measure abilities such as numerical reasoning, comprehension, spatial visualisation, inductive reasoning, and sequential reasoning to show how a person performs in specific areas. Furthermore, unlike interests, aptitudes do not change and stabilise around the age of 14.

The following are the key findings:

1) Students have nearly five times the aptitude for energy careers as they do interest.
2) Students have more than three times the aptitude for advanced manufacturing careers than they do interest in them.
3) Students have more than twice the aptitude for computer technology careers as they do interest.
4) Students have nearly twice the aptitude for health science careers as they do interest.
5) The analysis also reveals that biases persist and must be addressed in order to overcome the exposure and skills gap challenges. As an example:
6) Female students have 30 times the aptitude for energy careers as male students
7) Female students have nearly four times the aptitude for computer technology careers as male students.
8) Female students have nearly ten times the aptitude for advanced manufacturing careers than male students, while males have only two times the aptitude.

YouScience suggests that educators and administrators increase their investment in work-based learning initiatives to help students prepare for life after graduation. They can accomplish this by focusing resources on solutions and programmes that ensure all learners understand their aptitudes and match career opportunities, as well as by participating in coursework and programmes that build on these abilities and certifications.

Posted in News and tagged News, YouScience National Student Ability Report, Student Aptitudes, Workforce Needs, USA, Aptitude Assessments
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