There is a direct disconnect between education and employability in the U.S., and new employees who have been hired based on their educational background often don’t have the required skills to perform their job functions.
Employers complain they can’t find the right talent to fill positions, in terms of quantity, quality and diversity, so critical middle-skills positions go unfilled. At the same time, some students graduate from community colleges to discover they aren’t employable in their chosen field, or can’t find work that will earn a living wage. Employers don’t see them as ready for the workforce, according to a new report from the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and Harvard Business School that highlights the imperative for new changes to the community-college-employer relationship to help fill the middle-skills talent pipeline in the U.S.
The report, compiled as part of a multiyear, multi-method research initiative, Harvard’s Project on Managing the Future of Work partnered with AACC to survey the state and trajectory of the partnership between educators and employers. The research found that 84 percent of employers said their organization hired community college graduates. However, 93 percent of educators gave employers a grade of “B” or lower when assessing their level of collaboration with community colleges.
About 84 percent of industry leaders said they hire community college graduates. However, only 36 percent agreed that community colleges product candidates who are prepared for the industry.
The report offered three steps to help employers and community college educators repair the relationship and building a work-ready workforce.
Partner to offer training and education aligned with industry needs with strategies to co-create college curriculum around relevant technical skills, collaborate on program timelines to meet student and employer needs and incorporate hands-on, real-world learning.
Establish relationships with school representatives and employers that can result in recruitment and hiring of students and graduates. Colleges and universities can dedicate staff time toward the partnership, create processes for hiring community college graduates and commit to recruiting and hiring students.
Make supply and demand decisions based on recent data and trends. Pursue strategies to collect and share data on the supply and demand for talent and develop ways to monitor and improve the talent pipeline.
In the past, attending college was a logical step between high school and entering the workforce. Dave Sherwood, CEO of Bibliu, says that while earning degrees can benefit students in non-monetary ways including personal development, a large majority of students want better employment outcomes than they would have if they didn’t attend college. “They’re very clear that they expect to be paid more than if they weren’t studying,” Sherwood explained. “Many students don’t feel it’s worthwhile from an economic perspective. There are plenty of great jobs at all levels in the U.S., but the degrees aren’t setting up students to get these jobs because they don’t have the specific skills.”
Some students no longer feel that earning a degree is worthwhile, Sherwood pointed out. “The crux of the problem is that increasingly, the cost of education and the size of loans being accumulated don’t match the average salary they get from a particular course of study,” he added. “That’s the problem that higher education needs to solve.”
Sherwood offered some solutions to help institutions ensure that they’re graduating students with marketable skills.
- Improve alignment of courses with outcomes. Courses must be better aligned with jobs, Sherwood said.
- Collaborate with employers to develop courses of study that will turnout job-ready students. “Many community colleges in the U.S. are already doing a good job with this,” Sherwood said. “They are partnering with employers within their community for a certain course of study, and businesses will hire a number of students completing the program.”
- Require internships. Some schools have compulsory internships required for students to earn their degree, Sherwood said. “Those institutions tend to perform better than their peers,” he added.
- Recognize trade degrees. Not long ago, teachers and engineers, for instance, didn’t get their degrees, but earned certificates. “These have been upgraded to degree status, and carpenters and plumbers should also get a degree,” he said.