Building capacity for work-readiness: bridging the cognitive and affective domains

Abstract

Teaching for work-integrated learning (WIL) competency is largely directed at delivering knowledge based cognitive skills with little emphasis on affective skills. This study looks at empirical evidence of WIL students through their understanding of the cognitive and affective domains. The research is based on a validated employability framework, the work skills development framework (Bandaranaike & Willison, 2009), to assess core employability competencies of 138 WIL students and feedback from 111 employers. Statistical analysis was used to compare variations in the application of cognitive and affective skills. The study concluded that whilst overall students had limited understanding of affective skills, employers emphasized the need for greater affective skills in the workplace. In order to unlock the potential of the cognitive skills and for a deeper understanding of affective skills, this research introduces the concept of emotional work-readiness as a pathway for building work-readiness capacity.