It’s not a secret that the majority of employers are looking for ready-made specialists that can become a full-fledged part of a team from the get-go. It’s every business leader’s dream that colleges provide them with highly qualified marketers, e-commerce management specialists, financial analysts, advisors, strategists, accountants, auditors, and a whole host of other professionals that could make wise decisions, come up with effective business strategies, and participate in important meetings and negotiations immediately after graduating from their alma maters. But in reality, higher education institutions often prove to be unable to provide business owners with personnel which are qualified enough to meet the demands of the labor market. It’s a sad reality that modern graduates lack practical skills which are a prerequisite for successful employment. A good many college students are more preoccupied with how to write a critical analysis essay or finish the assigned readings by the specified deadline than acquiring a sufficient amount of experience or learning how to apply their theoretical knowledge to real life situations. As a result, slews of graduates turn out absolutely unprepared for the work world.
So What?
They say practice makes perfect. It’s hard to disagree with this truism, but in reality, very few employers are willing to invest their time and resources into training beginners and wait patiently until they can do what’s expected of them. No wonder, so many U.S. business owners tend to rely on overseas talents that can help them in getting their entrepreneurial venture up and running. Such a sad tendency leads to another sad tendency. According to the NCES, in 2018, almost 86 percent of college graduates holding a bachelor’s degree were unemployed, which is higher than for those individuals without higher levels of educational attainments. Needless to say, these figures are anything but optimistic.
Ways to Improve the Situation
At the beginning of the 2000s, there was an event that made all Californian business rethink their educational policies and teaching methods. The famous serial entrepreneur Jeffrey Deckman brought together American successful business leaders and representatives of Rhode Island higher educational institutions, teachers, professors, deans, and other learned people who had lots of years of experience in teaching business and finances. On that day, the business groups addressed reputed education providers in the attempt to convince them to make changes to their curricula and teaching approaches in order to satisfy the demand for well-qualified professionals. At first, the universities’ reaction was more than just negative. Lots of educators expressed their protest and indignation by walking out of the event. Fortunately, both sided reached the consensus, and as a result, a good many universities across North America elected to incorporate necessary adjustments into their curricula to match them to employer needs and help students build the skills employers seeking.
Presently, lots of business leaders are continuing forming alliance with colleges and universities. Thus, countless of students lacking hard or soft skills recieve the opportunity to improve their chances of getting a desired job after graduation.
PapersOwl, one of the most reputable online academic services, the ones that handle “do my essay for me” requests from students, also confirms that presently universities adopt a practice driven approach that allows students acquire the skills important in the workplace.
More Important Changes are Underway…
As for 2019, more than 212 universities across the country now have on-campus business advisors that help educators tailor their curricula to meet hiring companies’ specific needs. According to Jeffrey M. Buck, the dean of the School of Business and Information Technology at Purdue University Global, cooperation with business leaders has gone a long way in keeping students’ skills in accord with economic demands. Now schools can hear from companies about what skills they are looking for in their employees and what gaps in education need to be addressed to help graduate stay competitive at the labor market.
Very soon more college campuses will usher business consultants in. The advisory board also promises that in the nearest future it will assist hundreds of other schools in creating new apprenticeship programs in a variety of business- and IT related disciplines. Moreover, professional entrepreneurs will help teachers customize the current and new courses so that they can meet industry’s needs.
As noted by the Society for Human Resource Management, “the coalition of business groups seeks to raise more awareness about the skills gap and provide resources for school boards to help students develop and sharpen these skills.” The group is currently set to increase the number of partnerships between the business and educational providers by the end of 2020.
