Why Higher Education Must Include a Career Focus
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a long-simmering skepticism about the value of higher education to a boil. Two-thirds of current students now say college is not worth the cost, according to a recent survey from Third Way. Nearly 80 percent say they are worried about finding work after graduation. Meanwhile, employers have complained for years that graduates are leaving college unprepared for the workforce. This lack of confidence in what higher education can provide is especially troubling when colleges and universities are seeing historic declines in enrollment.
Employees and employers alike worry that the traditional college experience is no longer meeting the needs of the labor market. These concerns are legitimate. Broadly speaking, higher education is not doing enough to teach people the kind of 21st-century skills demanded by our rapidly transforming economy. While some schools are doing better in this regard, students at all institutions need access to educational experiences that link curriculum to career. If there is any hope of restoring public trust in our colleges and universities, this challenge must be confronted.
Career services should be a central component of the college journey, helping students understand how the fullness of their college experience prepares them for long-term success. This solution does not require reducing higher learning to mere job training. Despite their apprehensions about graduates’ lack of preparedness, employers recognize the value of a liberal education, which, with its emphasis on applied learning and engagement with real-world problems, remains vital to our evolving workforce. At the same time, however, both employees and employers are increasingly viewing higher education from a cost-benefit perspective. The investment, they worry, is not paying off quickly or dramatically enough.
A recent whitepaper authored by Andy Chan, VP for Innovation and Career Development at Wake Forest University, and Christine Cruzvergara, Chief Education Strategy Officer at Handshake, signals a way forward. It argues that career services should be embedded into the core of liberal education, providing students with far greater transparency around the skills they are learning and how those skills can be applied in the working world. Nearly a decade ago, Chan declared, during a viral TEDx talk, that for students to benefit more fully from their college experience, “Career services must die.” Chan’s goal, of course, is not really to kill career services but to tear down the false dichotomy between liberal education and career preparation. They can – and should – be one and the same.
Institutions should connect career-service leaders with other campus leaders. Career-readiness education should be more integrated into the academic curriculum, from providing vocational options like internships and externships alongside formal coursework to encouraging faculty to act as guides who prioritize career exploration and preparedness. A college’s network of employers, parents, and alumni can similarly be tapped to provide mentorship and coaching, and students should be taught how to utilize that network. Recognizing that students come from various backgrounds and pursue careers in different fields, institutions must also leverage technology to personalize career education and engagement.
Finally, institutions must clarify, collect, and report on career-outcomes data. While colleges and universities have long measured metrics like enrollment, retention, and completion, they have largely neglected outcomes connected to many students’ primary goals: finding meaningful work and a pathway to economic security. Colleges must be more willing to measure what happens to students after graduation and how successfully they are preparing students for work, citizenship, and life.
Ultimately, this shift must be reciprocal. Embedding career services into the core of a liberal education means ensuring that career services are not so narrowly focused on immediate post-graduation outcomes or a limiting set of “marketable” skills. It also means helping students better visualize how their college experience is preparing them for long-term career success and how those experiences can be applied to the working world. The future vitality of both higher education and the nation’s workforce depends on it.
