Educating students in order to prepare them for careers can be a challenge, particularly because it's difficult to determine what exactly the professional world has in store for them. However, one thing that future employees can be sure to deal with at some point during their working lives is making decisions.

While the level of decisions may vary depending on the profession, it's still a good idea to have the skills necessary in order to think about the overall outcome for the company. Researchers from Iowa State University gave students landscape problems to solve.

The study followed 45 students who had to take a series of four case study problems that were based on realistic residential landscape. The researchers found that students were able to determine that problem-solving was an important skill and understood the importance in trying to come up with the best decision possible, which are beneficial traits in the working world.

"That the students said that finding the best solution (to a problem) is among the more important aspects of problem-solving indicates that they understand how their problem-solving impacts the people they are trying to satisfy, in either an academic or a business situation", the authors wrote.