Solving the unemployed graduates problem
According to a new global study, all over the world there are multi millions of unemployed college graduates while there are many job openings but cannot find qualified employees. Most companies (73%) said that they are disappointing with current graduates' skills because what they need is not what these graduates can offer. Why so many college graduates do not have the skills that the industry need? The study found that there are three key reasons: The lack of collaboration between the schools and the industry; the failure of the schools to update their training programs to meet market needs; and the lack of knowledge about career choices among college students.
Many school administrators disagreed with the study as they believe that their graduates have the skills and ready for work and they blamed the economic recession. However, from the students' view, many admitted that their trainings are not adequate for employment; some of what they learn is obsolete. The study also found that many school administrators do NOT even listen to students' concerns because they believe that they know what is best for the students. School administrators also do NOT talk to the industry to understand their needs. The common view among them is “college education is NOT vocational education” as university is not the place to train workers for the industry.
According to the study, more than half of companies (68%) were not even satisfied with their new hires. An executive said: “Many college graduates cannot do even the basic things due to lack of skills and we have to spend a lot of money to retrain them. We want to work with universities to solve this problem but it is difficult. It seems that we are speaking two different languages as their view is not in agreement with our view.” The study also found that large companies can invests in training new hires but most smaller companies cannot and in developing countries, small companies constitute a large part of the economy. As they struggle to find people with the right skills, they cannot grow and the economy cannot improve.
Today college students are facing significant problems: When going to college, most do not receive adequate information about fields of study and career guidance to make the right decision. Many are not learning the skills that are required by the industry. Although universities provide technical skills but some are obsolete and many lack soft skills training such as communication, teamwork, and ethic. Today companies and schools are NOT even working together to address this issue so after graduate, many students find the transition from school to work very challenging. There is a difference between the “sheltered world” of university with high ideals and theories and the “real world” of the industry with practical works and common sense. That is why many struggle because there is a big gap between what they can do and what the industry expects. According to the report, only a few graduates (22%) have successful in their works because they receive a strong education and well informed about their fields of study that meet the industries' needs.
After point out these issues and the causes, the study offers three suggestions:
College students must change the way they think about their education and make strategic decisions about their futures. This is especially important in Asia, where most students are still living with families and rely on their parents to supports and some do not see the urgent of being independent or finding works. They must carefully choose which school to go to, which fields to study by research information about different career paths and motivated to pursue it. They must consider education as an investment and carefully tracking progress as their future depends on it.
Since competition for jobs is fierce, in order to succeed in their job search, students must be ready to present themselves in the best possible and they need helps. Schools must invest in providing students with careers planning when they enter college and continue to help support them in their education journey. Most graduates will need help in writing resume because when it comes to getting a new job, the first impressions is important, and it takes a well written resume to open the door. Graduates must know their career goals and strengths, know where to look for job openings, and develop the interview skills to help them prepare and rehearse questions to making a good first impression during the interview. Schools should focus more on what happens to students after they graduated by tracking their employment and their job performance. To improve student employment prospects, school administrators should work more closely with the industries to make sure they are offering courses that really help their students prepare for the works in the industry.
Companies should collaborate with the schools to design curricula that fit the business needs. Company's managers may participate in school activities and teaching to ensure that their needs are met. Companies might help retrain some teachers on certain practical aspects. The industry need to develop a comprehensive market information website that list all the skills that they need to help schools, parents, and students make better decisions on selecting careers.
To ensure that the training program can easily be updated and keep pace with technology change, the study suggests that schools break up the training programs into smaller modules that focus on building a particular skill rather than follow the traditional long course full of theories but less practices. Each of these modules would be short (few weeks) and focus on one key skill which allows students to complete each of them independently to make sense for their career aspirations. This model is very popular in the U.S. that allows students to develop a set of skills based on numbers of module taken. (the credit system)
The study concluded that an unemployed graduate is a major issue to the future a country. Only by working together, schools, industries, families and students can solve this problem and develop strong education systems that work effectively and beneficially.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
