The Conference Board and others sponsored a survey of more than 400 U.S. employers across a range of sectors, which included items asking employers how important various “applied” and “content” skills were for incoming employees, either those entering with a high school or a 2-year or 4-year college degree (Casner-Lotto & Benner, 2006). The results (for high school and 4-year college) are shown in Table 1. There are two useful conclusions to be drawn from these findings. First, some of what they called applied skills, or what might be referred to here as 21st century skills—specifically, oral and written communication, teamwork and collaboration, professionalism and work ethic, and critical thinking and problem solving—were rated “very important” for college graduates by over 90% of the employers. This is a higher percentage than the “very important” percentages received by the content