General Education Is Not the Problem. The Employability Architecture Is.
General education is not the problem. The problem is that many institutions have not designed a coherent employability architecture. Students develop the skills, attributes, and professional habits that constitute employability across general education, the major, co-curricular learning, work-related experiences, assessment, career services, and employer engagement. But these components are often managed separately, assessed separately, and […]
Applying Employability Futures: Three Questions for Educators and Employers
In the first two parts of this series (blog 1 and blog 2), I proposed that the future of employability, exploring the skills, attributes, and professional habits that enable people to gain, sustain, and transition between employment as work evolves, deserves the same attention we give to the future of work. The future of employability […]
Moving Beyond Soft Skills: Why It Is Time for a New Term
Year after year, reports highlight the importance of non-technical skills like critical thinking, creativity, and adaptability. The World Economic Forum’s most recent Future of Jobs report ranks analytical thinking as the most sought-after “core” skill followed by other skills like creative thinking and flexibility and agility. Despite their importance, these skills are often called soft […]
Bridging the Gap: How Higher Education and Employers Can Collaborate to Prepare Futures-Empowered Graduates
What Employers Want from Recent College Graduates A survey from Intelligent.com found that 6 of 10 companies surveyed fired a recent college graduate they hired this year. Why? The top reasons given for recent college graduates’ lack of success are (in order) a lack of motivation or initiative, lack of professionalism, poor organizational skills, poor […]