Employers sometimes talk about what they call a preparedness gap.
I recently saw a report from the Association of American Colleges and Universities showing a range of areas in which there’s a 10 percentage point or greater gap between the share of employers who deem a skill “very important” and the share who report that new graduates are “very prepared.” Some of the biggest gaps are in critical-thinking skills, problem-solving skills, and ability to work effectively in teams.
But I don’t believe most college graduates are unprepared to meet the demands of the workplace.
In fact, that same study found that employers value the skills and ways of thinking taught at liberal arts universities. Critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills, the ability to work effectively in teams — these are things we excel at, things we know we teach our students.
So what’s the disconnect?
I think what we’re facing is a communication gap.
At Pace University, we’ve long prioritized preparing our students for the workforce, giving them the skills, tools, and experiences they need to hit the ground running in their careers after graduation. As part of that commitment, our remarkable Career Services office works intensively with students to prepare them for the job market, coaching them on resumes, interviews, and other parts of the application process. Our efforts deliver: Our placement rates are consistently above national averages.
More than that, our executive director of Career Services, Phyllis Mooney, tells me that she never hears employers complaining about a preparedness gap. In fact, she hears the opposite.
I think that’s because Phyllis and her team teach our students how to sell themselves. “We train them how to pitch themselves,” she told me. “We teach them to know their brand, know the industry they’re applying for, and know how they fit in.”
Many if not most colleges teach their students to have the skills employers say they are seeking. Indeed, the National Association of Colleges and Employers has identified a group of career readiness competencies that we all know we’re aiming for.
But I’m not sure as many institutions do such a good job of teaching their students to talk about what they’ve learned, and translate it to a language that makes sense for employers.
Liberal arts institutions can too often be caught up in our world, unable to bridge the gap to practical applications. All students work on group projects; how can employers think they’re insufficiently able to work in teams?
Our Career Services office makes sure students know how to apply their experiences to what employers are looking for. They teach our students to talk the talk. Faculty can help, too, by underlining the practical applications of what happens in the classroom. Drawing those connections is what makes the difference.
A job fair at Pace University
Pace University
So is greater exposure to the working world. At Pace, we’ve long integrated hands-on experiences like internships into our academic programs. We believe students learn best when they have the chance to actually do the things they’re studying.
And an added benefit of our experiential education, I’m realizing, is that they also learn how to talk about what they’re doing. They know how to take the critical-thinking skills they sharpen by grappling with issues and engaging in debate, the problem-solving skills they hone by working problem sets and conducting research, the teamwork skills they develop through working on group projects and running extracurricular clubs, and contextualize them in ways that apply to the workplace and make sense to employers.
- Critical thinking skills are the skills students hone every day in classroom and discussion. Students should talk about times they’ve thought through a question and found new perspectives, or each time they’ve learned to see someone else’s perspective.
- Problem-solving skills are part of every homework assignment or personal challenge. Students should talk about times they picked apart a problem — for a class, for an activity, in their personal lives — considered it from many angles, and found a creative solution.
- Working effectively in teams means managing a group’s dynamics and effectively collaborating on a project. It’s what students engage in each time they tackle a group project, or even form a study group.
As this year’s crop of new graduates interview for jobs and seek new opportunities — and, after the long 16 months we’ve been through — as past graduates do the same, it’s crucial that they follow Phyllis’s advice and know how to pitch themselves. We need to make sure these graduates think about the skills they know employers are looking for, and think about how to match their educations and experiences to those skills.
We need to solve that communication gap, so employers realize there is no preparedness gap.
