Employability skills: purchased program or teacher-developed program

If an outcome of education is to prepare students to be productive citizens, employability skills are an imperative integration. The topic of employability skills is not new; these skills have previously been identified as non-cognitive or soft skills. The school district under study implemented the PRIDE program to teach employability skills. PRIDE is an acronym for persistence, respectfulness, initiative, dependability, and efficiency. The study included 595 students from kindergarten through fifth grade within two different elementary schools. The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a difference between employability skills implementation models of a formal purchased program compared to a teacher-developed school-based program. The study compared student pre- to post-PRIDE Rubric scores and the relationship of independent variables (to a student’s displayed increase in employability skills and meeting academic growth targets). The study found that the teacherdeveloped program resulted in a significantly higher Pride rubric score. Also, students in both schools with a lower Socio-Economic Status (SES)of Free, as determined by qualifying for free meal status, increased their pre- to post-PRIDE Rubric score while students with SES of Paid, as