College grads can’t think, write or speak––and their future employers don’t like it!
Here we go again. For the past several years, studies on the workplace readiness of college grads makes headlines in the business news––and the news ain’t good!
Here’s the news from the Washington Post:
“In a pair of surveys by the Association of American Colleges & Universities, would-be graduates said college armed them with the skills needed for the job market. But employers disagreed. On a range of nearly 20 skills, employers consistently rated students much lower than they judged themselves. While 57 percent of students said they were creative and innovative, for example, just 25 percent of employers agreed.”
The news doesn’t get much better…
“One study is the result of a test administered to 32,000 students at 169 colleges and universities. It found that 40 percent of college seniors fail to graduate with the complex reasoning skills needed in today’s workplace.”
Oh my!
“The test, the Collegiate Learning Assessment Plus, is given to freshmen and seniors and measures the gains made during college in critical thinking, writing and communication, and analytical reasoning.”
Wonderful. Our colleges are graduating young adults who can’t think, write or speak. And it doesn’t seem to matter too much where you send your kids to school…
“The results of the test found little difference between those students who graduated from public colleges and those who went to private schools.”
I won’t devolve into a lament over the damage of the “every-kid-gets-a-trophy” argument, though you could say that has something to do with it. There’s no doubt we’ve pumped up the self-esteem of an entire generation without the substance or capabilities to justify their confidence.
Instead of worrying about who made this mess and how, let’s focus on fixing the problem.
First of all––don’t wait for your college to change!
They’re trying, but they’ve got a long way to go. The needs of the workplace are changing faster than the curricula of higher education. For too long they responded to increasing demands for less practical and marketable courses of study. It will take time for them to adjust.