Article Summary #1

Employers Placing More Emphasis on Education

Jennifer Epstein, “Room for Improvement,” Inside Higher Ed, January 21, 2010

Employers are placing a greater emphasis on education than they ever have before. Many believe that colleges are not preparing students sufficiently for the workplace. The Association of American Colleges and Universities found in a national survey that employers think their employees need to obtain a greater variety of knowledge and skills before entering the job force.

Colleges are working strenuously to provide students with ample abilities and knowledge to prepare them for the competitive lines of work they will enter after school. “It is time for us to match our ambitious goals for college attainment with an equally ambitious – and well-informed – understanding of what it means to be well-prepared,” said the president of the association, Carol Geary Schneider. “Quality has to become the centerpiece of this nation’s postsecondary education.”

The survey, which examined 302 private sector and non-profit employers, discovered several trends in employers’ requirements for improved education in employees. For example, 89 percent of the employers surveyed felt that colleges should place more importance on training students “to effectively communicate orally and in writing” and 81 percent believed students needed improved “critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills.”

As the need for employees with improved skills is on the rise among employers, employers are also increasingly making a college degree a job requirement. Twenty-eight percent of employers surveyed said they stressed the importance of hiring people with bachelor’s degrees, 11 percent with associate’s degrees, and 5 percent with high school diplomas.

Hands-on work is also progressively becoming a job requirement. Internships, community-based field projects, and senior theses provide students with vital skills needed to fulfill jobs in their fields of study.