Closing the College-Career Gap

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Summary
Response
Conclusion
References

Introduction

For many, attending college is still seen as the guarantee of a dream job. In reality, things sometimes look very different. Education has been associated with many doors and chances for prosperity, but this reality has changed over time. Despite the training and efforts made by various sectors, both public and private, to manage and support the education sector, students continue to leave high schools and universities without the necessary skills to succeed in the real world. Higher education is no longer a selective, elitist system as it used to be but has become a part of the global mass market. Study on Employability Skill Gaps Among IT Graduates: Exploring Employers’ Views is an article published by Awadhiya in 2022 at the Indira Gandhi National Open University. The author claims that employers, and stakeholders in higher education, demand that higher education institutions provide graduates who are prepared for the workforce. However, it is not being realized, and businesses are constantly having trouble locating qualified graduates with modern employability skills. Graduates with the necessary employability are tough to find for employers worldwide (Awadhiya, 2022). The curriculum does not provide the skills necessary to enter the workforce. There is a disconnect between the knowledge one learns in school and the abilities one needs to function in everyday life, such as problem-solving abilities, language understanding, logical thinking, or data interpretation. Schools entirely disregard the soft skills needed in today’s business environment and only concentrate on grading. Enterprise and academic institutions must engage with each other and work together to understand what the industry expects of them by adopting learning practices relevant in the current business environment.

Summary

According to Awadhiya, a gap exists between college and career because higher education institutions do not implement creative methods of skill development to prepare their graduates for employment. Employers have concerns about the academic curricula and program delivery methods in relation to the employability skill gap, and they suggest that the higher education system is supply-dominated rather than demand-driven (Awadhiya, 2022). The higher education system is universally held responsible for this gap; hence it is believed that colleges will need to work diligently to close it. To close this gap, they must be aware of the employability skills that are unique to each degree and help their graduates acquire them. Awadhiya also analyzes the essential employability skills for graduates, followed by employer perspectives on skills among graduates. The most important task for colleges is that they should be able to teach students how to adapt and learn fast. Due to limited infrastructure, human resources, diversity of regional demands, and a large number of competitive students, traditional skill development methods cannot close this demand-supply gap. The author discovers that such skills as learning agility, interpersonal skills, integrity and values, and result orientation are needed to widen the gap between college and career. Therefore, if graduates train such skills in college, they wouldn’t meet any difficulties with finding a job in the future.

Response

Considering the summary described above, it is possible to agree that the level of education and employment opportunities are closely related. In modern times, it is important to clarify if people are attending college to obtain an education or to obtain employment in addition to their degree. One can postulate that the education gotten should assist a person in life with valuable skills regardless of the following life pathways. As for now, one could fully agree with Awadhiya that the educational system is not held responsible for ensuring that students are adequately prepared with the skills and abilities to pursue a career where they can achieve financial stability. Additionally, the traditional four-year degree requirement remains the main criterion used by businesses to assess the employability of job candidates (Hansen, 2021). Simply put, the outdated method is ineffective in the modern environment. The educational system should be reevaluated to equip students with employable skills better. Additionally, organizations must modify the way they assess applicants and job criteria. The education sector can help the economy recover from the epidemic and avoid future job deficits by tackling this issue head-on.

In addition, it is possible to agree with Awadhiya that this gap will always exist since imperfections are unavoidable. Currently, there are millions of unfilled job opportunities due to the inability of education institutions to adequately train job seekers for the workplace and the irrational company expectations regarding the skill sets of their workers. Therefore, individuals should be prepared to cope with their drawbacks by proactively changing employment and working (Teichler, 2022). This recalls 1967 The Los Angeles Times editors’ response to Reagan: “If a university is not a place where intellectual curiosity is to be encouraged, and subsidized, then it is nothing” (Brown, 2018, p.51). It is everyone’s responsibility to take care of their education and not rely on a college only. Moreover, to close the gap between college and career, some employers offer on-job training and internships to assist graduates in finding their dream job. Employers should keep improving the credibility of skill-based employment and dispel misconceptions about education and training.

However, it also is needed to respond to Awadhiya’s assumption that it is the collaborative obligation of employers, students, society, and policymakers to close the employability skill gap. Given their inherent limits, higher system institutions alone are not accountable for doing so. For example, students have always had a tough time getting an internship, but things got considerably more difficult when the pandemic struck, and firms decided to cancel their programs. Internships are essential for students since they are one of the best ways for graduates to land their first job. This widened the gap between career and college, which is already an issue (Martin, 2021). To solve this problem, all sides should cooperate. The most obvious solutions are developing relevant curricula, tracking the outcomes of studies at colleges, and for employers to be more willing to provide graduates with their first job experience.

Conclusion

All things considered, to match educational programs with the competencies required for jobs in the real world, higher education institutions should work with employers. The purpose of the curriculum should be to develop long-lasting and enduring ways of thinking, methods to solve problems, and approach knowledge. It is time to reevaluate education strategies to make them more career ready. Awadhiya indicates that employers are finding it challenging to find the relevant employability skills among the graduates. Still, he does not specify why this gap is also employers’ responsibility. There are plenty of perspectives for this research, such as studying ways to close this gap, strategies that can support new graduates in employment, or how the state can assist in fighting this issue. In order to study this issue, it is necessary to look further for other scientists’ analyses and study what skills are in demand on the market to shape the educational system in a more proficient way.