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The news is full of stories of businesses struggling to fill positions because they can’t find enough qualified graduates.  According to some business leaders, transcripts don’t give them the information they need to screen applicants. In addition, CEOs say, new employees arrive with college degrees but without the skills they need to succeed and must receive on-the-job training.

Austin, Texas, is a hotbed of high-tech industries and creative start-ups.  ��ɫֱ�� invited three CEOs from cutting-edge companies to a plenary panel at this year’s in Austin. Here’s just an example of the insights they’ll provide:

Cam Houser, CEO, (3DS): Focus on applied learning.

“The reason my company exists is because we were frustrated with how universities were teaching entrepreneurship. The theory is great but it needs to be complemented by practice. We provide experiential workshops for students to learn in an intensive, hands-on way,” Houser said.

“On resumes and transcripts, what I’m interested in is evidence of how students have applied that learning. What actions did they take as a result of the learning? The outcome—whether success or failure—is less important than that they had the experience of doing, building, making or selling. Have they had to communicate with professionals?”

Andrew O’Hara, Founder and CEO, : Include extracurricular learning artifacts.

“We’re interested in being able to see the work students have been doing on side projects, capstone projects for classes, summer internships and so on,” O’Hara said. “How do you standardize and capture those experiences? Especially when talking about computer science students and software developers—having experience with a particular type of technology is key. “

“As employers, we’re looking for data points that help us ‘de-risk’ a candidate. We need to know they have the skills we need for a very specific job. Especially for smaller companies, any one employee moves needle in terms of the company’s success—so you do everything you can to figure out if this candidate has the skills. The biggest way to ‘de-risk’ is to see that specific experience.”

Join these business leaders, as well as Tyler Mandry, CEO, , and moderator Mike Reilly, ��ɫֱ�� Executive Director, as they explore how colleges and universities can work with businesses to prepare the workforce of the 21st Century.

“I’m looking forward to the panel,” O’Hara said. “Getting a dialogue going between the academic and technological community is important. Hopefully this will be insightful for both sides.”