Читать книгу How to Find Work in the 21st Century - Ron McGowan - Страница 6

The fundamental challenge for colleges and universities is that for generations they’ve been turning out employees. Now, increasingly, they will need to turn out entrepreneurs, or students who have an enterprising approach to finding work. This doesn’t mean students have to start a business when they graduate, though those who want to do this should be encouraged and given as much help as possible to succeed. It does mean that graduates must have an entrepreneurial mentality in terms of marketing themselves and meeting the needs of employers. We tend to equate anything related to entrepreneurship to be the domain of business/commerce and MBA students. We need to change that thinking and recognize that this also applies to graduates in the liberal arts, social sciences, and every other sector in post-secondary education. Like all other employment seekers, today’s graduates must acquire self-marketing skills and be right on top of what is happening in the sectors they want to work in. The key question is, who is going to teach them these skills?

The biggest weakness in the post-secondary education sector in all countries is the lack of experience in today’s workplace by those who are responsible for education policy, funding, administration, and delivery. How do these people who live in the land of the steady paycheck and traditional benefits relate to the challenges facing graduates who will make their living from contract, temporary, and part-time employment with few if any benefits, including a pension?

There’s a huge disconnect between these bureaucrats, administrators, and educators and their students in terms of their own work environment and the workplace their students are entering. That disconnect will exist into the foreseeable future.

Going forward, we must find ways to educate those already in the education system about the challenges of earning a living in today’s workplace and hire people at all levels who have this type of experience. Only then can we realistically align the educational system with the needs of today’s graduates.

The area of career counseling needs a major overhaul and more resources need to be allocated to it. This area has never been a high priority within the education system, and that has to change. While there are a few examples of innovative thinking in this area, in the main, most colleges and universities are doing a poor job of preparing their students for today’s workplace. And some of the career counselors who do recognize the need to update and improve the services they offer to their students are not getting the resources they need or the support of senior administrators.

Effective career counseling must be a part of the curriculum, not an option, as it currently is. Before they can graduate, all students must be required to take workshops and courses provided by the career counseling department that educate them about today’s workplace and show them how to succeed in it. However, this is based on the assumption that the people who are teaching these workshops and courses are themselves experienced in today’s workplace and have earned a living outside of the twentieth century, traditional, full-time-job model. We also need people in these departments who are entrepreneurial, have operated their own businesses, and can adequately prepare students who want to pursue that option. According to a January 29, 2010, report from the UK Institute of Career Guidance, the UK Government announced the creation of The Careers Profession Taskforce “to modernize and improve our careers profession and the service it offers,” and to ensure “that the next generation of careers professionals can deliver our ambition that all young people get the best advice so that they unlock their potential.”

The Taskforce will focus on the secondary school system and look at:

• The recruitment and retention of well-qualified careers professionals.

• Ensuring that the profession is diverse and reflects the make-up of the working population.

• Whether all career specialists should hold a specialist qualification.

This is the kind of bold, forward-looking initiative that all western countries’ governments should undertake, not only in the secondary school system, but in the post-secondary education system as well.