21. The college-for-all approach isn’t working
The college-for-all approach that is adopted by many countries including the U.S. isn’t working for most people. The approach assumes that skills can only be taught in an academic setting or classroom.
As academic degrees are blunt instruments for identifying talent and success, there non-academic pathways (i.e., vocational education) that allow students to choose from based on their needs, personalities, and financial ability.
Unfortunately, there are no bridges between academic and non-academic pathways that allow young people to seamlessly transition between the two pathways without completely starting all over again.
22. Just-in-time learning to get the job done
With so much information being generated and are being constantly superseded by technology, it is hard to keep up with all the latest knowledge and information.
When the half-life of knowledge is ever decreasing, we tend to Google for answers instead when we need to find information to solve our problems.
People will only need to acquire knowledge in enough amounts just to get the job done and be paid for it. They embark on just-in-time education and learning. Continuous learning will be the key to remaining relevant in the future of work.
The traditional just-in-case education and knowledge acquisition that focuses on accumulating knowledge and theories are now dead.
What we learn today will quickly become obsolete tomorrow.
23. Acquiring outdated skills
Related to learning outdated knowledge is acquiring outdated skills.
As jobs are being constantly transformed by technology, there will be a high likelihood that skills acquired today will be outdated by the time they graduate especially when their course takes four to six years to complete.
Acquiring future-focused future-proofed skills that are transferable to other jobs and industries will become so vital for young people to learn in schools, colleges, and universities.
24. Mismatch of personal needs and appropriate training
There are too many mismatches of individual needs, interests, and capacities to the courses and training that is appropriate for them.
Many people rush into gaining a degree without thinking about its utility and value to their future. As a result, many students’ career aspirations are not aligned with their educational plan.
They are either over-qualified (i.e., students completed a bachelor level degree when they only need a certificate) or under-qualified (i.e., students completed a certificate-level course when they needed a bachelor’s degree).
This is also a function of poor career advice.
25. More education is not securing better jobs
People of all ages are expecting that as a baseline, formal learning and education through colleges and universities can provide them with the right employable skills to secure better jobs (job-ready) and fulfilling careers in a rapidly changing workplace (future-ready).
Unfortunately, there is a lack of transfer between what is learned in the classrooms by students and what is needed in the workplace by employers.
Many students weren’t satisfied with their development of hard-core work-related knowledge and skills that could have effectively secured them their first job after graduation.
Many young people don’t feel ready for the workforce. This is reflected in the employment prospects for recent graduates especially in their related field of study.
26. No job application skills to attain full-time work
Many young people don’t have the necessary interview and job application skills to prepare them for the competitive hiring process upon graduation. They struggled through the process and missed the opportunities.
27. ‘Entry-level’ jobs require years of ‘rich’ experience
Many entry-level jobs require a richer mix of formal post-secondary education and high-quality work experience that are preferably matched to an individual’s career pathway or post-secondary field of study.
There is no such thing as an ‘entry-level’ job that does not require any related work experience.
This is where employers are continuously driving up the experience inflation where the amount of work-related experience required to secure so-called ‘entry-level’ jobs is increasing.
28. Degrees don’t guarantee better salaries
People who spend three or more years completing a university degree may not expect to earn significantly more in the early years after graduation than people who spent the same time gaining practical work experience.
However, graduates may earn more money in the long run throughout their lifetime if (and only if) they can secure related field-of-study jobs straight after their graduation where they can start their career.
If they can’t secure those related field-of-study jobs immediately, then acquiring costly degrees would not necessarily guarantee better salaries in the long run. In financial or investment terms, there’s no positive return-in-investment.
While it was once true that more education generally led to higher income, there are many exceptions to this rule.
(a) Some one-year certificates pay more than associate degrees.
(b) More than 30% of associate degree holders make more than the average bachelor’s degree recipient.
(c) 40% of bachelor’s degree recipients make more than the average person with a master’s degree.
As such, degrees in different fields result in different income.
29. Degrees lacked value for doing current jobs
Many graduates employed full-time viewed their qualifications as neither a ‘formal requirement’ nor ‘important’ for doing their current jobs. This could be due to many factors.
As such, we must be mindful that certain college or university degrees may add little or no value in workplaces.
30. Underutilisation of graduate skills
More and more graduates are reporting that they are not utilising their skills or education in their current jobs. This is an important indicator of the under-utilisation of graduate skills, especially upon graduation.
This occurs when they cannot find jobs that require their field of study or that there are no jobs available.
When skills are not applied regularly, they will likely be lost.