A recent survey showed that American higher education has a job training crisis, noting that “traditional undergraduate education is not preparing students for the workforce,” and even that “traditional degrees hinder graduates at work.”
According the survey, which interviewed 1600 recent college graduates who are now employed full time::
- Only 24% of recent college graduates say they have the skills they need for their current role.
- 87% of graduates said they got better job training from their employers than they did their colleges, and
- 96% of HR leaders say that colleges need to do a better job preparing graduates for the workforce
The mismatch between undergraduate curriculums and workforce readiness has been noted before – it’s one of the reasons the movement for employers to hire on the basis of skills, not degrees, has gained momentum in recent years. It’s also why Calbright College, California’s online community college district, works directly with industry leaders, HR representatives, employers, and employees to match each of its certificate programs with the skills they’re looking for when they hire and that employees need to succeed.
But an article in Forbes magazine suggests that more can be done.
Five Essential Workplace Skills
In her article, sociologist Dr. Tracy Brower suggests that there are five essential skills that colleges need to teach their students in order to prepare them for a good career. “These are the skills that businesses are demanding and graduates need from higher education,” she writes.
- Real world experience
- A global mindset
- Interaction skills and the ability to work on a team
- Tech and AI fluency
- Career and degree coaching
Because of its close consultation with employees, industry and HR leaders, and businesses, Calbright’s programs cover each of these areas specifically. “Calbright has developed specialized content in durable skills, which specifically teaches students the types of skills employers are seeking,” said Calbright faculty member Ashley Odell, who is the Workforce Readiness program lead. “There are nine durable skill modules, and they are all informed by employer survey data to represent the specific soft skills they are looking for in employees, and many of them are directly aligned to Brower’s “Essential Skills.”
Real Work Experience
Calbright’s programs are taught by working experts in their field, giving students access to real world situations and issues that come up. “I tell my students, everything you’re learning here is up-to-date as of five minutes ago,” said Calbright instructor Michael Stewart, who has worked in IT for over 20 years and is a recognized expert on AI.
But it doesn’t stop there. Calbright’s programs provide students the opportunities to connect with leaders in their field and even to build portfolios where they actually work on real business cases. Calbright also works to connect students with paid internships and apprenticeships. It means that Calbright students aren’t just learning the right skills, they’re proving they have them ahead of their job searches.
A Global Mindset
Calbright is a California Community College, open to all Californians at no cost and focusing on job and career opportunities in California. But it still cultivates what Brower calls “a global mindset.”
“This kind of experience can come from many sources during college or university experiences, including exposure to diversity in the student body, from international placements or from diverse professors,” she writes.
Calbright is among the most diverse colleges anywhere, with 72% identifying as BIPOC, more than 90% of students 25 or older, and 30% responsible for the care of dependent children.
Calbright College also offers direct education in developing a global mindset. One of the nine Durable Skills modules available to students is Intercultural Fluency, where students learn to analyze how culture influences work, apply techniques for interacting sensitively and effectively with people from various backgrounds, and critically evaluate biases in oneself and others to create a workplace that supports our diverse and interconnected workforce and economy.
Interaction Skills And The Ability To Work On A Team
Calbright students get to decide when and how they’ll study, and some choose to hunker down and get through their courses on their own. But for those who want it, opportunities for collaboration and developing teamwork skills are everywhere.
Calbright’s digital campus on Slack offers students the opportunity to study and train together in both scheduled meetings and spontaneous “huddles.” Peer-to-peer mentoring is always available, portfolio projects often involve teamwork and consultation, and Calbright’s workforce readiness courses teach the crucial “durable skills” and “soft skills’ that hiring managers say are key not just to getting a job but to thriving in it. Teamwork and effective communication are literally on our syllabus.
Several of the Durable Skills modules address this directly. Modules in Oral Communication, Collaboration, and Emotional Intelligence give students three opportunities for in-depth training on how to effectively interact with others in the workplace and beyond.
Technology Fluency
Calbright is specifically designed for people who want to transition their careers into technology or advance in it. Our programs teach the most up-to-date and industry valued skills in tech and business fields including:
- IT Support
- Cybersecurity
- Network Technology
- Project Management
- CRM Platform Administration
- HR Learning and Development
- Data Analysis
And more.
A durable skills module in “Digital Savvy” is also available for students to supplement the technology skills they learn in their core programs. This module teaches them how to ethically and effectively use digital tools, AI platforms, and social media to perform tasks, locate reliable information, and accomplish workplace goals.
Students graduate from Calbright with the skills, knowledge, and experience needed for a successful career in technology, and perhaps most importantly they “learn how to learn,” in order to keep their skills sharp as they advance in their careers.
Career and Degree Coaching
The goal is not just to get the student credentials they need, but to help them find the right career path.
“Graduates wish they’d had more guidance in selecting their major and their degree path and 79%-72% hold their college and high school guidance counselors and programs accountable for this miss,” Brower writes.
Calbright addresses this by offering free career counseling, as well as success coaching, to every student. Our faculty all work in their industries, and so are able to give students a clear idea of the kind of jobs that are available and the kind of people who succeed in those fields. Career readiness is a key part of every curriculum here, as evidenced by the fact that all programs incorporate one or more durable skills modules into their curriculum. Further, Ashley Odell has developed a comprehensive Job Search module that helps students articulate their strengths to employers through their application materials, while networking and in the interview. This module is available to students as a supplement and also is seamlessly integrated into at least one of our programs.
Students and alumni also have access to Career Connect, an end-to-end career portal to search, find, and apply for the jobs they’ve studied for.
That’s five for five.
The Leading Edge of the Learning Curve
This isn’t the first time that experts have proposed improvements and reforms to the higher education system, only to discover that Calbright is already doing it.
We think this is in part because students often know what they need and what will help them, and communicate it clearly. But while listening is crucial, it’s only part of what has to happen: finding ways to actually reimagine college, making those changes and making them work, is just as important.
That’s why the state of California created a college specifically aimed at underserved adults, to push those boundaries and make those changes and figure out how to get them to work for students – and then share them with the rest of the state’s community college system. What started out as an experiment has now become a success, helping thousands of students to change careers and access their goals.
