When you earn a college degree, what have you proven to employers? That you can conform to a workplace culture, work reasonably hard and are reasonably smart?
The salary statistics say that a college degree IS worth the effort. But getting hired is just the first step to career success. Retaining a job and making process along the career path is a life success skill that may or may not be developed in college, say authors Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa. The first two years of college produce no improvement in critical thinking and writing skills for nearly half of college students.
These data shook the higher education profession, because each college is measured on employability of job graduates. Employers want creative thinkers who know how follow-through and know how to communicate well. These skills are often viewed as less important that technical, specialized knowledge that is gained in a college major. They are the deciding factor between equally qualified candidates.
Character traits often predict success in the real world better than I.Q. scores. Colleges don’t teach students how to regulate their emotions, accept criticism, cope with failure and persevere. Test-taking skills are considered remedial.
Today, students spend three times as many hours in leisure than in studying. This is half the amount of study time, compared with a few decades ago. A third of students in the study spent five hours of less per week studying. And this trend is particularly true in less selective colleges, the authors say, where the student population has the greatest need for a leg up in society. Slacking off in college, the authors found, led to problems are graduation: excessive debt, unemployment, and living with mom and dad.
Colleges, parents and students share the responsibility for making college meaningful and worthwhile. Students often rise to the level of a college’s expectations. But maturity, too, plays a large factor in whether students maximize their college opportunities by actually going to class and studying enough to succeed. While colleges have a step in the dance by ensuring adequate and meaningful rigor across their curriculum, students need to balance study time with leisure; “partying” comes to mind. How do students learn to do that?
Early education – even preschool – is a key factor in the development of "non-cognitive" skills, and character traits such as self-control and conscientiousness. These traits are not recognized as a skill set; except perhaps in the home, where values are developed.
Parents lead -- counselors, coaches and teachers help – and ultimately students must be receptive and learn from these examples and their own experiences. The most motivated student can learn a lot despite having “the worst” professor, or being in a less selective college. If you have a value called “personal pride” in your efforts, then you will be motivated to discover, ultimately, what works for you. You’ll recover from failures and ultimately craft wise decisions for your college, major and courses. You’ll get good grades, graduate, find a job in your chosen field, and succeed.
My mission is to empower youth with: - The knowledge about career possibilities, and the education and training needed to attain them - The creative-thinking and emotional skills that make for good career decisions and which employers prefer; - And the resilience needed to flourish in life.
