Employers are looking for new graduates to enter the work force with strong technical skills as well as the ability to communicate, make decisions and problem solve, self-manage, work on a team, act professionally, gain strong experiences, and lead. The Association of Public and Land Grant Universities commissioned a study to understand the priorities of employers, and compare them to students, faculty, and alumni. The study included a ranking survey of seven core skills, each with seven characteristics. The survey respondents represented 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Guam and 45+ majors/employment types. This study uses the commissioned survey (Crawford, et al., 2011a) as a base to begin analyzing the differences between Environmental and Natural Resource Specialists (ENRS) as compared to those in other employment fields to understand how to prioritize and focus skill development in students. Ordinal regression highlights a variety of differences including the priorities of the core skills' rank order and within each cluster, including communication, self-management, and experiences. Major differences occur such as the ENRS greatly value cross-disciplinary experiences and the ability to adapt and apply technology while significantly undervaluing leadership experience, leading change efforts, and being trust worthy as compared to the other fields. The ENRS field is most different from the medical and service professions, indicating that students are least likely to attain the prioritized soft skill development of their employers and what they may come to expect in their core classrooms.
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