Many colleges and universities are still organized around a stable model of education and work that no longer fits the futures their students will enter. This raises a fundamental question: How should higher education prepare students for meaningful work in a changing world without reducing education to job training?

When asked if their institution is fully prepared to adapt to change, only 26% of higher education leaders said yes (EDUCAUSE)

84.6% of graduating students rate themselves as very or extremely proficient in professionalism, but only 50% of employers agree (NACE)

89% of educators believe their students are prepared for the workforce. Only 52% of graduates agree with 48% of graduates say they feel unprepared to even apply for entry-level jobs in their field (Cengage Group)

This can lead to...

Graduates Underprepared, Now and for What Comes Next

Many are underprepared even for today's work, and the future of employability will demand more.

Employability Efforts Added On, Not Part of the Design

Employability initiatives often exist at the margins or lack coordination.

Institutional Missions on the Defensive

Leaders feel pressure to prove the degree's worth and drift toward job-training language that hollows out a real education.

The Futures-Empowered Perspective

Everyone is examining the future of work. Far fewer are examining the future of employability: the skills, attributes, professional habits, experiences, and supports students need to secure meaningful work, adapt as work changes, and build fulfilling lives and careers.

When the future of employability is not examined on its own terms, institutions keep preparing students for today while the work those students will do continues to change.

The future of employability is a central focus of Futures Empowered. More broadly, I explore how higher education can prepare students and institutions for an uncertain future, including the role of the humanities, leader development, and strategic foresight.

The future of employability is about more than preparing students for today’s jobs. It asks what skills, attributes, professional habits, experiences, and supports students will need to secure meaningful work, adapt as work changes, and build fulfilling lives and careers.

Strategic foresight is not about predicting the future. It helps leaders identify signals of change, challenge assumptions, explore multiple plausible futures, and make better decisions when the path ahead is uncertain.

Leading through uncertainty requires more than technical expertise. I explore how leaders develop the judgment, self-awareness, adaptability, and capacity to make difficult decisions and lead others through complexity and change.

As higher education responds to AI, workforce pressures, and questions about its value, the humanities remain essential to its broader educational mission and to preparing students for long-term employability. I explore the humanities’ role in developing judgment, ethical reasoning, communication, and the capacity to understand complex human problems.