# 21st Century Employability Skills: What Employers Want and How to Build Them Canonical URL: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/employability/21st-century-employability-skills/ Markdown URL: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/employability/21st-century-employability-skills.md Entity type: Article Last updated: 2026-07-07 Language: en Primary audience: professionals improving communication at work Owner: Headway Skills Contact: https://headwayskills.com/contact/ ## Short answer The 21st century employability skills employers rank highest, from communication and teamwork to decision-making, and how to build them before you apply. ## Key facts - Title: 21st Century Employability Skills: What Employers Want and How to Build Them - Category: Employability - Primary skill: Communication - Related skills: Teamwork, Decision-Making - Primary keyword: 21st century employability skills - Source page: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/employability/21st-century-employability-skills/ ## What this page covers - The 21st century employability skills employers rank highest, from communication and teamwork to decision-making, and how to build them before you apply. - Practical guidance for 21st century employability skills - How this topic connects to Communication ## Detailed explanation 21st century employability skills are the transferable skills employers look for alongside a qualification: communication, teamwork, problem-solving and decision-making, initiative, self-management, self-awareness, adaptability and a steady attitude under pressure. None of them is technical, all of them are learnable, and employers want to see evidence of them rather than the labels. If most of your education so far has been about passing exams, that list can read like a test nobody prepared you for. It is more workable than it looks: each item comes down to a handful of behaviors you can practice in a part-time job, a group project or an internship, starting now. What is less obvious is why employers keep asking for the same few skills while the technology around them keeps changing, and which ones repay your effort first. ## The 21st century employability skills employers rank highest According to NACE's Job Outlook 2025, problem-solving was the attribute employers most wanted to see on a new graduate's resume, with the ability to work in a team close behind; each was sought by more than 80% of employers, written communication followed closely, and initiative also ranked near the top. A 2017 review of research on labor-market demand puts the same three at the top: communication, problem-solving and decision-making, and teamwork. That shared core opens the list below. The remaining entries are the personal attributes that make the core usable day to day, and several of them are among the hardest to build in a lecture hall. ### 1. Communication Communication sits in the top three of the 2017 review, and written communication follows close behind problem-solving and teamwork in NACE's survey. The adjustment from study is mostly about order and length. An essay builds toward its conclusion; a work message that does the same gets skimmed, and its point is missed. So the habits that count are putting the main point first, keeping it brief and clear, adapting to the person on the receiving end, and choosing a conversation over an email when the topic is sensitive or complicated. On the spoken side, it means hearing someone out fully before you respond and voicing your view while the discussion is still open, not in the corridor afterward. Practice describing your own projects aloud, too: words that flow on paper often stall when spoken, and an interview will ask you to say them. Evidence comes from the presentation you gave, the update a group depended on, or the message that got a quick, clear answer. ### 2. Teamwork More than 80% of employers in NACE's survey look for the ability to work in a team, and it ranks among the top three in the 2017 review. Group assignments are a weak rehearsal for it, because a shared grade holds a group together whether or not its members trust each other. At work, trust does that job. You earn it by doing your own part excellently, keeping every commitment you make, asking where the team needs you next, and passing on what you know along with the credit for what went well. You also earn it by disagreeing openly about the work, never about the person, and then [backing the decision the team makes](/knowledge/teamwork/disagree-and-commit/), even one you argued against. Evidence is any shared effort where others relied on you, described through what you actually did rather than through adjectives. ### 3. Problem-solving and decision-making Problem-solving is the attribute employers in NACE's survey look for most often, and the 2017 review pairs it with decision-making as a single top-three category. The pairing makes sense, because at work a problem rarely has a right answer waiting to be found; it needs a sound call made without an answer key. Start by pinning down what outcome is actually needed and [who gets to decide](/knowledge/decision-making/decision-making-authority/), so you don't solve the wrong problem or settle something that was never yours to settle. Then widen the input: ask someone who has handled a similar case, and look for the facts that would prove your first idea wrong, not only the ones that support it. Settle for a workable answer when waiting for certainty would cost more, and be willing to drop a plan that isn't working, however much effort it has absorbed. When you take a problem to your manager, arrive with one proposed way forward. ### 4. Initiative Initiative ranks among the top attributes in NACE's survey, and [for a newcomer](/knowledge/influence/show-initiative-at-work/) it is small and practical. You ask for the task nobody has claimed, offer to take notes or prepare the first draft, and follow up on an action point before anyone has to chase it. You ask why a process works the way it does, and later, once you understand the answer, suggest how it could work better. Thinking one step beyond your own task, toward what the team is actually trying to deliver, counts as initiative too. Asking can feel presumptuous when you are the least experienced person in the room. One of the young people we interviewed about starting work had blunt advice for anyone holding back for that reason; the wording comes from our interview notes rather than a transcript: > Be critical. Don't just say 'yes, thanks' and 'OK' — ask questions, and question things. It really isn't that dangerous. Watch out for too much humility and deference to authority. Asking is taken positively, even if the answer is no. And ask even when it's outside your area of expertise — it gives you insight. A question costs little, and it is the one form of initiative that works in any role from the first week. ### 5. Self-management In the Be 21 Skilled study, employers from 29 countries rated self-management among the most important skills of all, and the study notes it is among those harder to build at university. The reason is structural: a course hands you the deadlines, the reading list and the format, while a job expects you to set much of that yourself. At work, self-management means agreeing on the deadline and what "done" looks like before you begin, planning your own week rather than reacting to whatever arrives, finishing what you committed to without reminders, and flagging early when something is slipping instead of hoping it sorts itself out. A part-time job held through exam season is strong evidence, because it shows you handling competing demands that nobody coordinated for you. ### 6. Self-awareness Self-awareness appears among the personal attributes in the 2017 review, and it matters for a practical reason: someone who knows their strengths and gaps can be developed, while someone who doesn't tends to repeat the same mistakes. It starts with knowing what you are genuinely good at, not merely competent at, and with asking for feedback that is specific and aimed at what to do next time. It also includes noticing your own reactions, such as the urge to defend yourself the moment your work is questioned, and being able to take in the point anyway. The best evidence is concrete: a weakness someone pointed out, what you changed, and what happened next. ### 7. Adaptability and lifelong learning Adaptability and lifelong learning complete the 2017 review's list of personal attributes, and they explain how the rest of this list stays current. Tools, systems and job titles change; the skills above don't, but you will be applying them in settings you can't predict. Adapting at work looks unremarkable: treating a new system or a changed plan as something to learn rather than resent, asking how something works instead of pretending you already know, and treating a mistake as information about what to do differently. Evidence is any time you had to get up to speed quickly, in a new job, with a new tool or in an unfamiliar team, and how soon you became useful. ### 8. Attitude and emotional steadiness The Be 21 Skilled employers also ranked social, emotional and attitudinal skills among the highest, and these are hard to build through coursework alone. At work they show in how you treat people: the same respect for everyone whatever their role, genuine interest in colleagues, and appreciation said out loud. They show in steering clear of habitual complaining. And they show in how you handle a setback: taking criticism of your work as information rather than as an attack, putting your energy into what you can still control, and talking a problem through with someone you trust. These are habits, not character traits, and they can be practiced. Evidence is a moment when something went wrong and you stayed steady enough to help fix it. ## Why the list has barely changed The "21st century" label suggests something new, and much of it isn't. "21st century skills" is a broad term from education that covers these skills along with other essential skills promoted in education frameworks, while employers hiring for a role screen for the employability core in the list above. That core is older than the label. A U.S. federal commission, the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS), found that employers want entry-level staff to have basic skills, higher-order skills and affective skills: the same mix of thinking and attitude the entries above describe. It hasn't moved since, either. In NACE's 2026 reporting, working in a team, solving problems and communicating effectively are still what employers most want to see. The reason is that these skills concern people and judgment rather than any particular tool. Every new technology still needs someone to explain what it produced, agree with colleagues on what to do about it, and make a call when the data is ambiguous. That durability is good news if you are deciding where to put your effort: practice spent on these skills does not expire when a software package does. Nor do they stop counting once you are hired. In an Australian employability skills project led by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Business Council of Australia, employers stressed that entry-level and ongoing employees alike need a broad range of these personal attributes. ## How to close the gap your degree leaves A 2023 review in the journal Heliyon, covering 25 studies drawn from 30 years of research and government reports, found a persistent mismatch between what employers expect from new graduates and the skills graduates bring; most of the studies concluded that graduates still lack the employability skills the job market asks for. That sounds discouraging, but the reason behind it points straight to the fix. These skills are built through practice in real working situations, and a degree program doesn't automatically supply that practice. The gap is a matter of missing practice, and practice can be added. So go and get it deliberately. A part-time job, an internship, a volunteer role, a student organization and a group project with real stakes are all working situations. Pick one or two entries from the list and practice them on purpose for the next few weeks: the main point first in every message to your group, say, or one question in every meeting you attend. Because practice time in a final year is scarce, it pays to [find your weakest work skills](https://assessment.headwayskills.com/) first and aim that time where the gap is widest. Then turn practice into proof. A new graduate has little work history to show, so employers look for evidence of these attributes as the best available guide to how a new hire will perform. On a resume, replace adjectives with short pieces of evidence: what you did and what changed because of it. "Strong communicator" tells an employer nothing; "wrote the weekly update a five-person project team planned its work around" tells them something. For interviews, keep three or four true episodes ready, each told as the situation, your action and the result. A single good episode often covers several entries: the group presentation where a teammate dropped out two days before the deadline, and you redistributed the work and still delivered, shows teamwork, decision-making and self-management at once. ## The skills that keep working when the job changes Read back through the eight entries and three threads keep reappearing: getting a message across, working well alongside other people, and making a sound call when nobody hands you the answer. Most of the other entries lean on at least one of them. **Communication** at work is a set of plain habits rather than a gift: stating the main point first, keeping messages short and direct, adapting to how the other person takes in information, and choosing a conversation when trust or nuance is at stake and writing when someone needs a record. Listening fully before you respond belongs on that list, as does contributing while a decision is still being made. Because these principles sit beneath every channel, they carry over to whatever tools your next workplace uses. **Teamwork** is where the group-project habits of school get replaced. The work becomes being excellent in your own role while watching for where the team needs you, building trust by keeping every commitment, and disagreeing about the topic rather than the person. Once the team decides, you commit to the decision, including the ones you argued against, and you raise it respectfully when a teammate's commitments slip. None of this asks you to be agreeable at all costs; it asks you to be dependable. **Decision-Making** covers the calls you make inside a role every week. It starts with knowing your decision authority, then involves getting another opinion, slowing down when you feel rushed, using facts, and accepting good enough with some uncertainty left over. It also means recognizing the common traps: looking only for information that confirms what you already think, or sticking with a choice because of what you have already put into it. For someone used to exams with one right answer, this is the skill that makes ambiguous work manageable. The Job Skills Test gives you a reading on each of these three, and since none of them depends on a particular tool, the result stays relevant as your work changes. It places them among **twelve work skills in all**, so you can [rate yourself across all twelve](https://assessment.headwayskills.com/) and see how these three compare with the rest; each of them can be learned, so whatever the result shows is a place to start, not a verdict. ## Skills you may already be using Some of these behaviors may already show up in how you handle a group deadline or a busy shift. If you have ever turned a sprawling group chat into a three-line plan everyone could follow, or made a call on your own when a shift was short-staffed and explained it to your manager afterward, you were practicing communication and decision-making with real stakes. Where the list feels thinner, closing it is a matter of practicing specific behaviors on purpose, not of becoming someone else, and which skills you work on first is your choice. The more people come to depend on your work, the more these skills decide how it lands, so the lower-stakes years of study and a first job are the easiest time to build them. What turns that into a plan is knowing where to begin. ## Find your starting point What remains is a clear baseline. The Job Skills Test is a **free** self-assessment of your workplace skills: it takes 7 minutes, rates you across all twelve, and shows which ones will make the biggest difference as you move from study into work and start proving these skills to employers. **[Get my skills profile](https://assessment.headwayskills.com/)** *Free, takes 7 minutes, with results shown instantly.* ## Who this is for - Professionals building practical workplace skills - Readers looking for specific, usable work advice - Managers, educators, and coaches supporting career readiness ## Common questions ### What is this guide about? The 21st century employability skills employers rank highest, from communication and teamwork to decision-making, and how to build them before you apply. ### Which Headway skill does this connect to? This guide connects primarily to Communication. It also relates to Teamwork, Decision-Making. ### What is the recommended next step? Use the free Work Skills Test to reflect on which work skill to improve next. ## Related pages - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/employability.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/communication.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/teamwork.md - https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/decision-making.md - https://headwayskills.com/work-skills-test.md ## Citation guidance Use the canonical page when citing this content: https://headwayskills.com/knowledge/employability/21st-century-employability-skills/ Preferred summary: "The 21st century employability skills employers rank highest, from communication and teamwork to decision-making, and how to build them before you apply." ## Change log - 2026-07-07: Content collection version published.