As Summer term is just getting underway for our University students and exams approach, my colleague shared this insightful article with me about all the skills a Stanford dean feels 18 year olds should have, and ironically all the helpful things that those guiding young people, save them from having to deal with in day to day life.  I particularly liked the mention of Grit (check out Angela Lee Duckworth's TED talk on this) and resilience - many of my second year students have really valued the awareness of this. When you read between the lines of all of these points, ultimately we have the core competencies that graduate recruiters look for:

1. Networking

2. Common sense

3. Time Management

4. Teamwork 

5. Problem Solving

6. Mental Toughness and Managing People

7. Financial Accountability

8. Resilience and Grit

These are not only life skills that contribute to success and happiness, but they are deemed essential by employers when recruiting talent. And if students don't have them at age 18, how can they acquire these skills? Fundamentally these are very practical skills and strengths, some of which are innate in a personality type, some are not. This does mean that some personality types will require more effort to demonstrate and realise some of these areas than others, but it's important that they are developed and identified to all students whilst they are studying, so that the students can go into the workplace during their university experience through internships and placement opportunities, so that when they apply for graduate jobs, they can demonstrate to graduate employers that they possess these qualities. This is what we called 'Professional Readiness'.