Why was it that so many of my friends ran off to buy copies of “What Color is Your Parachute?” as soon as they graduated with Ivy League degrees? Am I not the only one who sees the irony that a paperback book can help someone find their way in life better than a six-figure education?

When we talk about how colleges can help graduates better pursue careers, I think we need talk openly and honestly about college curriculum, college life, college professors, and college purpose.

Traditionally, college curriculum, especially at the undergraduate level, has not been designed to support students in making effective career choices or in preparing them for careers. These days we’re all fond of telling kids that a college education is the key to their financial future. But we haven’t told this to colleges. Even at the finest colleges in America, kids don’t get much in the way of serious career preparation. Hence, all those trips to the self-help aisle of the local Barnes & Noble after graduation.

College life doesn’t help much either. I graduated from Boston University and spent a year or two thereafter mingling with the best and brightest at Harvard. No one ever talked about careers unless you count going to grad school as a career. I would imagine this has changed a little bit in 25 years. But the college kids I talk to now seem to have only the vaguest idea of the kinds of careers they might like to pursue. The highest number of college grads I see work at my local Enterprise Rent-a-Car. And I’ve never heard any undergraduate say that this was exactly what they’d always dreamed of doing. Changing college life, or more accurately college culture, may not be possible. So much of it is held sacred and handed down with such pride from generation to generation. I believe that most students see college, not as career preparation, but simply as a new time of life and a new measure of personal independence. This may not be a bad thing. But it certainly isn’t a career thing.

Perhaps the biggest change we need to make, if we want more kids coming out of college career-ready, is in the professoriate. Too many professors simply aren’t close to the real-world fields in which they teach. The best way to prepare students for careers is to have them prepared by people who have actually had those careers or, ideally, people who still have them. I remember my ire one day at discovering that the teacher who was teaching my marketing class had never actually held a job in marketing. Needless to say, it was hard for her to answer many of my real-world-oriented questions. So after a while, I just stopped asking.

We seem to do the best job of matching qualified professors to real-world careers in the Arts. I don’t ever recall having had a music class from someone who wasn’t a practicing professional musician. The same thing seems to hold true, for the most part, in visual arts and in acting. The old chestnut, “Those who can’t do, teach.” really needs to be the exception not the rule if we want colleges to prepare kids for careers.

Then there’s the purpose of college. Do kids know why they’re going? Do parents know why they’re sending them? Do professors know why they’re teaching? Do the institutions themselves stand for anything more than a nebulous mission statement on a plaque?

These are tough questions. I’ve asked them of people many times. And I almost never get a clear answer. Kids seem to go to college because of a vague societal or not-so-vague familial expectation. Parents send their kids because it makes them feel like good parents. Professors teach what they teach because most of them have always taught more or less the same thing. And most institutions of higher learning act more like profit centers than they do like learning centers.

And everyone involved seems to want things exactly this way, such is the popularity of going to college today.

Everyone also wants to believe that getting a college education leads to a career. But, statistically, this is only true in a minority of cases. And if you ask these people how they found their careers, they will often say that they had wanted to be what they are long before they got to college. (Doctors and teachers are good examples of this.)

In the back of our minds, and sometimes even in the front, we all have this sense that a college degree leads inexorably to a career. But most of us who’ve been out of college a while stand as living examples that this is not true. I can’t say I don’t use some of the skills I learned in college in my work. But I can’t say either that many of the courses I took in college were even closely related to any of the of three careers I’ve pursued. I guess I should have read that parachute book.

But maybe that’s not as silly as it seems. For example, why aren’t more college-bound high school students introduced to the wonderful literature that exists today on finding one’s way in life? Why don’t they have classes like this in both high school and college? In an era when kids and their families assume extraordinary amounts of debt to get a degree, would it be too much trouble to require one course in the undergraduate curriculum that might help kids connect what they’ve learned with how to make a living? (And could it please come in the freshman year?)

As with so many issues in education today, we are a nation confused when it comes to the purpose of college. We hold the college degree in high esteem. And we pay high dollar to possess it. But rarely do we talk seriously about its value.

One concept I’ve always been attracted to is that of the “gap year.” I picked this up from some of my English friends who seem to take a year off after high school before heading off to college. I like this idea. Even if you already know where you’re going to school, you get a year to figure out why you’re going there. This can’t be a bad idea. Heck, some kids might even get jobs! And wouldn’t that be a kick in the pants if a few students actually entered college having had even a modicum of work experience in a field they might want to pursue as a career.

The gap year would be good for parents, too. Besides another year to save for school, it could give them time, when their kids were not in school, to talk a bit as a family about the purpose of going to college and the value of a college degree.

As I cruise the hallways of the many high schools in which I work, I almost always see one of those posters listing average income by highest degree of schooling completed. Yes, the averages are true. People with a BA make much more – on average – than people without. But as a motivator, or a proxy for purpose, this argument falls flat. No single student represents the average. Yet every decision to attend college, and every ounce of effort it takes to graduate, come down to individuals and the individual choices they make.

In the end, I think most people share the vaguest of vague notions that a college degree –in anything, from anywhere – makes one’s life better. (I probably share it, too, despite what I’ve written here.) But until we are willing to dig deeply into this belief, and to see what it is made of in light of current realities, I don’t think college will change much with regard to preparing kids for their careers.

 

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Yes, new graduates often need career counseling and job-placement support as they enter a highly competitive workforce, especially during a time of economic crisis. But the most important thing colleges can do to make their students more attractive job candidates is actually to address their primary charge: ensure that students leave campus with the knowledge and skills they need to be successful. In addition, colleges must ensure that a higher percentage of the students who enroll actually make it through to graduation.

After generations of improvement, America's young people no longer are better educated than their parents. Every year, about one million freshmen head to four-year colleges seeking degrees. Fewer than four in ten will meet that goal within four years, and barely six in ten will do so in six years.

Beneath those national averages on college completion lie vastly different results on individual campuses. Too often, it’s assumed that a graduation rate is predetermined by the demographic characteristics of the student body or its SAT scores. Campus-level data tell a different story. For example, 71.5 percent of African-American students at Florida State University graduate in six years or fewer. At Louisiana State University, the six-year graduation rate for African-American students is 50.9 percent. And at the University of Arizona, it’s 45.2 percent.

These schools have much in common: similar student characteristics, similar campus size and spending per student, and similar institutional missions. Where they differ is in results. As it turns out, what colleges do to support the academic success of their students matters a lot.

Thankfully, some leaders of public college and university systems throughout the United States recognize their role in ensuring that more young Americans not only have access to postsecondary education but that they gain the knowledge and skills they need and can complete their degrees ready to compete in the global workplace. Participants in the Access to Success initiative, a project of the National Association of System Heads, are publicly committed to closing by at least half the gaps in both college-going and degree completion that separate their low-income and minority students from others—all by 2015.

Later this year, baseline data will be released from these 23 systems, which collectively educate more than two million undergraduates nationwide and approximately one-third of the low-income and minority students attending our four-year public institutions. What these systems do and whether they succeed matters a lot, both to their respective states and the country as a whole.

President Obama set a goal for America to regain the global lead in college-degree attainment by 2020. In no small measure, our success in meeting this goal—and in helping our once-vital economy rebound to generate more job opportunities for all Americans—will depend on higher education leaders stepping up and taking responsibility for making colleges work better for all of the students they serve.

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Today House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., released his legislation to make college more affordable by ending the federally subsidized student loan program and originating all new federal student loans through the direct loan program (for a a savings of $87 billion over 10 years).

Among other provisions, the bill would spend $40 billion to increase the maximum Pell grant and link future increases to the CPI plus 1, invest $3 billion for college access and completion programs, and invest $1.2 billion in historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions.

Signficantly, Miller declined to act on the administration's proposal to make the Pell grant program a mandatory spending program -- an idea that was never popular in Congress, which jealously guards its right to make annual spending decisions.

Here's the link to more information on the committee Web site:http://edlabor.house.gov/newsroom/2009/07/chairman-miller-introduces-leg.shtml

Our nation’s colleges and universities certainly do have a responsibility to help ensure that graduates are well prepared for the workforce – particularly in these difficult economic times. But that responsibility isn’t theirs alone. First of all, students have a responsibility to properly prepare themselves for college-level work. Also, policymakers at the state and federal levels must do their part by helping create the proper conditions for students to succeed and for postsecondary institutions to properly serve them.

The most effective way to hasten the economic recovery and ensure our nation’s long-term stability is to makethe development of human capital a cornerstone of U.S. economic policy. To do this, we as a nation must significantly increase the production of high-quality college degrees, we must make postsecondary education more responsive to workforce needs, and we must expand college opportunities for adult learners. One way to accomplish all of these things is to strengthen the nation’s community colleges ― and President Obama’s announcement Tuesday of a $12 billion federal initiative to aid these vital institutions is a much-needed step in the right direction. It is a clear sign that the federal government is shouldering its responsibility, and that federal officials see higher education as the main engine of our nation’s future prosperity.

Colleges must take full advantage of this opportunity, and they must be accountable — working in cooperation with the policy and business communities to make their programs more relevant, more efficient and more productive than ever before. It is critical that colleges and universities clearly define high-quality learning outcomes, help their students achieve those outcomes, and accurately track their own and students’ performance.

Increased productivity of truly valuable degrees and certificates is vital in the world we now confront. Our students need degrees that have — and can demonstrate — real value; that’s why a focus on learning outcomes must go hand in hand with efforts to improve retention and graduation rates.

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In case you missed it, today President Obama announced the American Graduation Initiative to provde community colleges with $12 billion over the next decade (using funds saved by the administration's proposal to end federal subsidies to private student loan providers) to educate another 5 million Americans by 2020. 

The plan includes a Community College Challenge Fund to award competitive grants to community colleges and states "to innovate and expand proven reforms...that demonstrate improved educational and employment outcomes."

It also calls for a new research center "with a mission to develop and implement new measures of community colleges' success so prospective students and businesses could get a clear sense of how effective schools are in helping students -- including the most disadvantaged -- learn, graduate, and secure good jobs."

House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., have already issued statements praising the initiative.

Here's a link to more information on the White House Web site:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Excerpts-of-the-Presidents-remarks-in-Warren-Michigan-and-fact-sheet-on-the-American-Graduation-Initiative/

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Higher education is an issue close to my heart as a former college provost. I have been troubled to observe the challenging job market for graduates in our current economic troubles. To prepare young American to be competitive in today’s economy, we need a comprehensive approach that blends traditional classroom study with real-world experience.

For this reason, I have been a strong advocate of cooperative education programs. These programs alternate periods of academic study and employment to give students work experience in their chosen profession. Cooperative education benefits businesses by making recruitment and training more cost-efficient and improving retention rates among permanent employees. Upon graduation, a high proportion of students who participate in the program are offered permanent positions by their cooperative education employers.  These education partnerships also help establish good relationships between the academic and business communities. Finally, at a time when college graduates face overwhelming debt, cooperative education is a way to make college more affordable, as students earn salaries to pay off their loans.

Over a decade ago, the Cooperative Education program enabled more than 1,000 schools to establish programs which helped hundreds of thousands of students gain work experience while earning money for college. Unfortunately, in 1995, Congress slashed all funding for Title VIII of the Higher Education Act, which supported cooperative education programs. Although we have reauthorized the program in the Higher Education Opportunity Act, the funding is still needed.

With several of my colleagues in Congress, I have requested $10 million for cooperative education this year. Based on Title VIII’s past measures, the requested amount would enable 125,000 students to participate in these vocational programs. This is just a start, and I continue to hope that the program can be expanded in the future.

I believe cooperative education can be an important piece of the solution to put our economy back on track and prepare our students for the 21st-century workplace.

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 For college students not attending a highly selective university, the most valuable employment asset is work experience.

Work and community-based learning should begin in high school. Three networks that do a particularly good job of structuring work experiences include Cristo Rey, Big Picture, High Tech High. Students graduating from schools in these networks have a good sense of what they’re interested in and perhaps even more importantly what they’re not interested in. They are comfortable and confident in adult work settings. And they have had dozens of experiences producing high quality work product subject to the scrutiny of public inspection. 

Colleges and departments vary substantially in terms of their commitment to supporting relevant work experiences. Like the high schools above, the ones that appear to be most successful include 1) a credit requirement, 2) the support of an advisor, 3) a community of business partners, 4) a reflective experience after the internship. These attributes don’t occur organically—it takes strong department and college leadership to ensure that every student has several valuable work experiences tailored to identified career objectives. Many colleges could learn something from successful high school internship programs. Even college grads should be employable.

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As a professor at a university (Berkeley) that has taken more than its share of lumps because of the recession, I'm enormously sympathetic to the plight of out-of--work graduates. High uemployment rates are, of course, part and parcel of any recession, and because of their inexperience new graduates are at a natural disadvantage in a sellers' market..

How higher education institutions should respond  depends on the species of institution we're talking about. Community colleges and the best of the for-profit schools are nimble at developing smart training programs that match current local needs.

It would be a mistake, though, to expect selective liberal arts colleges and universities to attempt the same feat. For  one thing, they wouldn't be any good at it. For another, those schools have a different role-developing the habits of mind and intellectual tools that, among other things, generate long-run economic payoff for their graduates. (Such an education can also lead to a more richly lived and politically engaged life, a message that may be hard to get across to the currently unemployed..)

I'm not suggesting stand-pat-ism---quite the contrary. Precisely because a good undergraduate education carries life-long benefits, highly selective universities like the University of California should be considering how to expand their reach, especially to the kinds of students, disproportionately poor and nonwhite, who have historically had few chances at high-quality instruction. One possibility is to expand online instruction, offering a virtual education at a level of sophistication comparable to Britain's Open University.

 At a moment when legions of out-of-work graduates are questioning the value of their degrees (and some of my fellow commentators are joining the chorus), it's counterintuitive to talk about how universities can educate more students--how they can reach the legions of poor and minority students who have largely been shut out--but that's the precisely kind of thinking that ought to be going on right now.

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Alan Berube, Senior Fellow with the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, submitted the following:

This week, President Obama is scheduled to make a major announcement on expanding financial support for community colleges.  That's a good thing.  Community colleges are arguably more focused on providing their students with the specific skills needed to obtain jobs than are other institutions of higher learning, as George Boggs notes.  (In fact, recent community college graduates were not included among the respondents to the NACE survey cited above.)  And right now, the already-strained public two-year sector is facing tremendous pressures from exploding enrollments amid declining resources from state and local governments facing budget armageddon. 

The demand for skilled workers with some post-secondary education, but not necessarily a bachelor's degree, remains significant.  Labor Department statistics suggest that unemployment rates for 2-year degree holders are marginally higher than for 4-year degree holders, but far lower than for workers with no college at all.  Growing numbers of occupations in health care, public administration, and the much-heralded "green economy" will continue to employ these graduates at high rates.

For community colleges, there's no question that enabling graduates to find employment is a primary responsibility.  The problem lies in their production of graduates.  Many community colleges could do a whole lot better at helping their students get through to a degree or certificate that translates into labor market success.  Only one in ten students entering community colleges in 2002 completed a two-year associate degree within three years.  Entering students are often underprepared for college-level coursework, and juggle family and work demands alongside school.  Meanwhile, the colleges themselves have out-of-date infrastructure, insufficient technology, and overstretched, under-rewarded faculty.  Preserving student access to these institutions is one thing; promoting their educational success while there is another.

As Brookings and others have argued, realizing the potential of community colleges to help their students succeed will take new resources, particularly at the national level, where support for public four-year institutions outstrips that for two-year institutions by more than three-to-one, on a per full-time student basis.

But new resources should be applied in new ways.  Rather than funding institutions based on their enrollment--as most states do--new financial support for community colleges should be based at least in part on their performance.  This might include getting students through development education and into regular coursework; enabling them to earn degrees, certificates, and/or transfer to four-year colleges; and ultimately helping them gain access to good-paying jobs.  Washington State, for one, is already gearing some of its support to community colleges in this way through its Student Achievement Initiative.  The feds should use much-needed new investments in the two-year sector to promote this type of explicit focus on completion and success.

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Many community colleges do a good job at preparing their students for the workforce. But, with a new direction and help, they could do much more.

First, we must better align k-12 goals and output with college expectations. This will require, in part, much clearer messages from the colleges as to the specific knowledge and skills that are required to do freshman level work without remediation. Community college leaders and other business and civic leaders in their communities must then place greater leverage on, and provide more effective help to, k-12 to deliver to these expectations.

Second, colleges must come to grips with this largely disgusting and fraudulent business known as "developmental education." Colleges have a right to expect entrants to be able to do work without need of remediation, and all the other players owe the colleges better on this front. But, other than modest help where students might need some brush-up, colleges need to scrap this burgeoning business of "developmental education", which doesn't work, contributes to a waste of time and dashed dreams, and costs significant resources.

Third, we should work harder and smarter to weave planning at the regional level, including community colleges, in the most sophisticated competitiveness efforts that are underway in the states to be sure that the skills that are being taught are largely for the jobs we're seeking in our economic development  activity.

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One way colleges can help graduates pursue a career is to help more college students become graduates in the first place.

It's clear from the jobs data that the fallout from the current economic downturn is disproportionately hurting workers with the least amount of education. The dividing line of opportunity in the modern economy is the college degree, now more than ever. Yet many colleges and universities have shockingly low graduation rates--worse, in many cases, than the high school graduation rates we're so rightly worried about. A significant number of institutinos graduate fewer than 40 percent of their students. Rates for minority students sometimes fall below 30 or even 20 percent.

To some extent this is because colleges serve a lot of underprepared students. But studies show that college graduation rates vary enormously even after controlling for admissions selectivity and other external factors.

Terry Hartle notes that ACE "surveyed 1,000 young graduates (25-39 years old) of two- and four-year institutions and asked how useful they found their college education and experiences to be" and found positive results. Have they surveyed any of the tens of thousands of young college students who don't graduate every year and don't return to college? I suspect the results would be different. And these are the students most at-risk in today's perilous job market.

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            Colleges and other educational institutions can influence which students get the more highly-skilled jobs that are available. But colleges and other educational institutions cannot, to a significant extent, affect the number of jobs that are available - highly skilled or otherwise.

            This truth is obvious in our current economic crisis. Nobody can seriously believe that if colleges made graduates more attractive job candidates, this would cause the unemployment rate for college graduates to fall. If employers are now filling vacancies for recent college graduates in a number equal to only 20% of their class, surely this is not because graduates are insufficiently attractive as candidates. The unemployment rate for those with a college degree (including both mature workers and recent graduates) was 4.8% in May, up from 2.1% at the start of the recession, and higher than at any time since 1979 (the earliest available data).[1]

            These unemployment numbers are probably understated. Anecdotes abound that many young college graduates, though not technically unemployed, are forced to begin their careers as interns at low rates of pay and sometimes with no pay at all. This phenomenon does not seem to be a product of the current recession – it has apparently been growing even when the economy was strong. If there were truly an economic shortage of well-educated workers, employers would have gobbled up these undercompensated and uncompensated college graduates, at regular rates of pay.

            The number of available jobs (including those that require college education and those that do not) depends upon the size and growth of the economy, affected in turn by demand-side factors such as the strength of consumer (public and private) demand and credit availability. Education reform cannot influence such factors.

            Yet while this truth is obvious in today's economic crisis, at other times many observers forget it and assert a fiction: that if more students graduated from college as attractive job candidates, more would find highly-skilled jobs requiring college education. This fiction assumes that when our economy is not in recession, there is a shortage of college graduates available to fill jobs requiring college education.

            But this fiction is just that. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has consistently projected that the number of college graduates in the U.S. labor market will continue to match (or exceed) the number of job openings requiring college education. Indeed, BLS finds that many of the largest areas of future job growth in the American economy are in occupations requiring little skill, not even a two-year post-secondary credential – waiters and waitresses, retail salespersons, truck drivers, janitors, home health aides. This reality will not be changed if only colleges could make their graduates more attractive candidates.

            Many of those who see a skills crisis in the American economy, attributable to inadequate education, confuse the fastest growing job categories with the job categories having the largest openings. It is true that many (though not all) of the fastest growing categories require post-secondary education, but this fast growth starts from relatively small bases, so does not generate many new jobs for college graduates.

            Others point to the gap in wages between college and high school graduates, a gap that at some (but not all) times during recent decades has grown, and conclude that this reflects a supply-demand imbalance. In reality, during much of the last 40 years, the wages of college-educated workers in science, technology, engineering and math have been stagnant or growing very slowly. The giant wage gains of college graduates in some recent years are attributable to big boosts in compensation of managers and sales workers (for example, in Wall Street and similar finance occupations). It is hard to take seriously a claim that the giant bonuses paid to finance workers in the last decade are indicative of a nationwide shortage of college graduates.

In actuality, the demand for college graduates has slowed considerably since the 1980s,[2] even at times when the college-high school wage premium was growing.

            My colleague at the Economic Policy Institute, Lawrence Mishel, and I have, in previous work,[3] noted that productivity growth in the American economy has been extraordinary until the recent economic crisis, especially in comparison to that of other industrialized countries. If the American workforce did not have sufficient skills to use the most advanced available technology, such productivity growth could not have been possible.

            Much of our education policy in recent years has been driven by the inaccurate belief that if only all students could qualify for post-secondary education and then become "attractive job candidates," all youth would then obtain well-compensated jobs that took advantage of these qualifications.

            But our true challenge is quite different. When this recession is over, it will still be the case that attractive candidates for jobs requiring a college education will not be in short supply. And if we succeed in preparing more students for college, and supporting them as they complete it, an economic surplus of college graduates will grow. With hourly compensation for college graduates flat from 2002 to 2008, this can only mean that pay will start declining.[4] It is already the case that new college graduates earn less and get less generous benefits than those at the beginning of this decade.[5] The economic issue is not how to generate more and better-prepared college graduates. Rather, our challenge is to break a system where the best predictor of which students obtain a college education and access to the limited number of good jobs available is so easily predicted by the race, education, and material circumstances of those students' parents.

In a contemporary environment where only 20% of college graduates can find jobs appropriate to their education and training, this inequity can only get worse.

Confronting this inequity, in a social and economic system where occupational privilege is necessarily limited, requires changes in our social, economic, and educational institutions that go beyond improving the quality of preparation received by college graduates. For example, if we are serious about increasing the competitiveness of minority youth for a limited number of the most desirable jobs, we must make this competition more palatable for advantaged youths who, in greater numbers than before, may lose out. It is hard to imagine how losing can be made more palatable without making the consequences of losing less severe—ensuring that those with only a high school or associate college degree (roughly sixty percent of the workforce), and even college graduates who cannot find employment requiring a college degree, have jobs which are decently paid. This will require addressing the excessive income inequality we've developed as a nation, not a topic usually considered by educators or education experts.

Nothing I have said here should be taken to minimize the importance of getting more young people prepared for college, and through it. We may have an economic surplus of college graduates, but not a cultural or civic surplus. There are many reasons to raise the educational level of our population besides workforce preparation. But the notions that we face an economic calamity if we don't dramatically boost the number of college graduates, or that inadequate college preparation is stunting their access to jobs, is simply wrong.

[1] epi.org/publications/entry/jobspict_2009_july_preview/, Table 5

[2] stateofworkingamerica.org/tabfig/2008/03/
SWA08_Wages_Figure.3AD.pdf

[3]See Appendix 1 of Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right; epi.org/publications/entry/books_grading_education/

[4] stateofworkingamerica.org/tabfig/2008/03/
SWA08_Wages_Figure.3A.pdf

[5] stateofworkingamerica.org/tabfig/2008/03/
SWA08_Wages_Figure.3Q.pdf

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Matthew Segal, founder and executive director of the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE) and national co-chair of the 80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs Coalition, submitted the following:

Our higher education system is generally successful in training students who are capable of contributing their talents, ideas, and diverse skill sets to the American workforce. However, while colleges and universities provide students valuable career services support, these efforts are unable to overcome the fundamental economic challenges overwhelming recent graduates as they enter the labor force.

As the country weathers a recession, Young Americans struggle with near-Depression Era economic conditions. The unemployment rate among 18-24 year olds is 17.8%, nearly 9% higher than the national average. While Millennials form only 15% of the labor force, we represent a staggering 33% of the unemployed. As tuition rates continue to rise, students are graduating with loan debt averaging $27,000 per person; and by the age of 24, young Americans amass over $2,000 in credit card debt. Millennials are also the most underinsured demographic, with more than 30 percent currently lacking health coverage.

Given these crippling statistics, we need to work with both the public and private sectors to advance a bold economic opportunity agenda for young Americans. That is why the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE), the Roosevelt Institution, and Mobilize.org have launched 80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs, a coalition of 28 leading youth organizations committed to developing and advocating policy proposals that improve workforce opportunities for our generation. The 80 Million Strong agenda includes:

• Entrepreneurship—creating new incentives and programs to support young entrepreneurs in the business and non-profit communities.

• Public Service Careers—building volunteer to career pathways that capitalize on our generation’s desire to serve while also offering well-paying employment.

• Student Loan Debt Deferrals—establish an extended grace period for students with student loan debt by allowing young people to adjust to the workforce prior to paying down their debt.

• Mission Critical Sectors—a renewed emphasis on mission critical job sectors that can act as the backbone of the economy and serve the public interest.

* Green Jobs—environmentally sustainable ventures that build on technological advances.

* National Security—protecting our country’s vulnerabilities, particularly in areas such as cyber security.

* Education—support students seeking higher education, developing more qualified teachers at all levels, and working towards equality in public education.

* Healthcare—investments in preventative healthcare, nurse education programs, geriatric care, and electronic medical records.

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As a mother who paid for a college education for my recently-graduated daughter and who is about to pay again for my rising high school senior (I’m one of the lucky few who can continue to do so), this topic hits close to home.

College students of all ages need to be more demanding of colleges about what they want from this product called “higher education”. Unlike years past, they can no longer be satisfied with buying a name brand and hoping for the best in the marketplace.  Buyers (college students) must be savvier consumers who better understand three variables – price, the value of their education in the marketplace (i.e. can I get a job or does this put me on a course to my ultimate career destination or goal?), and the value of the time it takes to gain these skills or competencies.  Today, consumers are often unable to make these evaluations since there is a dearth of information about what they are buying, where it will take them, and how it will enrich their lives in ways that may not be immediately marketable or quantifiable.  And on top of all of that, students and families face issues related to student loans and financing and whether they have the adequate preparation in high school to allow them to be successful in college and graduate in four years. 

Colleges—including community colleges—can do more by providing additional transparency about cost, time to completion, and life and work after college. And to be fair, some institutions have responded by adopting the Voluntary System of Accountability (developed by AASCU and APLU) or similar efforts around consumer information. Some states have moved forward as a matter of state policy, too. While enabling graduates to find employment is not their sole responsibility, it is wrong for higher ed officials to wash their hands of the realities of the life and economy their graduates will face.

I’m embarking again on a summer filled with college tours with my youngest daughter and the ongoing barrage of literature from colleges and universities, student loan companies, and test prep and counseling organizations. Wouldn’t it be great if these same folks were as concerned with my daughter’s prospects after college as they are with getting her into college?  While my oldest child is one of the lucky ones who found a job, many of her friends from all types of schools aren’t so fortunate, and they’re on their own to figure their way forward (including how to pay their students loans now due). That…will be a real education.

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The current economic downturn has put a bottom-line focus on jobs for many Americans. As recent college graduates seek their first jobs, they are confronted with an unhappy truth -- new entrants into the labor market are always at a disadvantage in an economic downturn.

This is not to say that graduates are ill-prepared or that an economic slide is the time to put off pursuing a degree or additional job training. Indeed, as Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently said, “The best thing we can do is educate our way to a better economy.” And every sector of American higher education -- traditional four-year institutions, community colleges, and for-profit trade schools -- has a role to play in pursuing this goal.

The data is indisputable -- the more education people have, the more likely they are to have a job and the more they will earn. Higher education is still the best investment students and families can make in their futures.

In addition to this data, we’ve surveyed recent college graduates to see what they think about how well their education has prepared them for employment. Last year, the American Council on Education surveyed 1,000 young graduates (25-39 years old) of two- and four-year institutions and asked how useful they found their college education and experiences to be. The results were heartening -- 92 percent of graduates believe their education was worth it, even considering the time and money required to attend. Additionally, 84 percent of respondents believe they were effectively prepared with the necessary knowledge and skills upon graduation. Graduates also reported that they often use the knowledge and skills they gained during college (50 percent very often, 37 percent somewhat often).

There’s always more work to do to ensure access and success for students in postsecondary education but those entering colleges and universities this fall can rest assured that they will be well-prepared to compete, even in a difficult job market.

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With unemployment in the US at a 26-year high, people who are just now entering the job market are finding employment to be a challenge. According to a recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, less than 20% of 2009 college graduates who applied for a job were successful (as compared to more than 50% in 2007). The great majority of these new baccalaureate holders are forced to adjust plans, and some may be questioning their investment of time and money. However, it is still true that educational attainment pays off. Labor statistics consistently document that higher levels of educational attainment result in lower average unemployment rates and higher average salaries. Recent high school graduates are likely finding it even more difficult to find sustainable employment in today’s economy.

As President Obama said in a May 8, 2009, speech on job creation and training, “Someone who doesn’t have a college degree is more than twice as likely to be unemployed as someone who does.” Moreover, the President sees education as the best single bet we can make, not only for the success of individuals, but also for the success of the nation as a whole. That is why he is committed to ensure that, by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. He has asked every American to commit to at least one year of higher education or career training.

Increasingly, colleges and universities are accepting responsibility for the success of their students, and that includes preparing them to be employable. This is especially the case for the nation’s community and technical colleges, which offer most of the nation’s workforce preparation programs. But, in today’s environment, the desired outcome of employment at graduation or program completion is not an easy one to accomplish. On July 5, the New York Times ran an article, “Job Training May Fall Short of High Hopes,” which pointed out that, even after retraining, many laid-off workers were unable to find employment. There is no reliable information available that indicates which jobs will be in demand in any given part of the country by the time retraining or educational programs are completed.

One answer to this problem may be found by examining the initiative taken by policy makers and educators in the Carolinas and Virginia when their economic base of furniture making, textile manufacturing, and tobacco production went into steep decline in the last decade. Leaders in this region of the country decided to transform the economies of their states by attracting high tech/biotech companies. With the support of federal trade adjustment funding, the states used their community and technical colleges to retrain workers for a new economy. Colleges and universities can follow this example to provide the leadership to assist policy makers with the economic transformations of their regions.

Higher education institutions can also do a lot to assist their students to be job-ready. Career counseling and advising is a valuable service for students. We know that all majors are not considered equal when it comes to employability. In fact, many bachelor’s degree holders attend community colleges to acquire the skills that they need for employment. Although job opportunities (and their matching educational programs) are often location-specific, there are some jobs that generally seem to remain in demand. Health care professionals, first responders (police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and paramedics), and educators seem to have been most protected from job loss. The emerging “green economy” will likely create careers in energy and environmental sustainability. Currently, the top five programs in community colleges are registered nursing, law enforcement, licensed practical nursing, radiology, and computer technology.

In addition to knowing (and perhaps helping to shape) the local economic base, educators are well advised to pay attention to what employers are saying when designing programs for students. Reporting on an April and May 2006 study, The Conference Board listed the skills most cited by employers as being necessary for employability: professionalism and work ethic, oral and written communication, teamwork and collaboration, and critical thinking and problem solving. Graduates who have these skills are not only the most likely to be employed, but they are also the most likely to remain employed or to be reemployed in an economic downturn.

Community colleges, of course, have a unique role to play. Not only do these institutions provide the first two years of baccalaureate education, they also provide certificate programs and two-year associate degree programs that prepare students for the workforce as well as retraining programs to help displaced workers gain the skills needed for reemployment. The colleges are close to their communities and usually have advisory committees of local business and industry leaders. During the current economic downturn, student enrollment has surged in community colleges across the country as the colleges have responded to meet local needs.

Community colleges, now enrolling about 46% of all US undergraduates, have traditionally provided the entry to higher education for those who would not otherwise have an opportunity. Increasingly, community colleges have become the colleges of “first choice” for many recent high school graduates who benefit from smaller class sizes and lower costs. Community colleges have also been quick to respond to the educational needs of communities, often shaping their curricula to meet local workforce needs. During recent mass layoffs in the automotive and related industries, many community colleges sent staff members into factories to counsel employees and to enroll them in appropriate educational and training programs. A 2004-2006 study conducted by ACT and the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) found that 72% of students who enrolled in community college classes to upgrade skills and advance their careers reported a major contribution to learning competencies required for their jobs. An earlier AACC study found that 95% of employers of community college graduates commend their preparation at the community college.

Colleges and policy makers also have an obligation to keep the doors of these institutions open and to keep costs affordable for students. Reports of community colleges being forced to cap enrollments in these difficult economic times are deeply troubling. Turning students away from educational opportunity runs against the grain of community college values. And it is especially problematic in today’s environment when education and training provide the hope that President Obama talks about for individuals and for the nation as a whole.

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