Study Finds College Students Not Preparing for Career After Graduation

A new study finds that college students are not aggressively preparing for their careers while in college, and that their lack of career efforts may be seriously hurting their future job prospects, according to The Student Career Development Study.

The study also found that the majority of college students (95%) have a Facebook account, while only 34% of students have a LinkedIn account. College students see the value of having an internship — with over half of students having over three internships in college —  while 93 percent do not have an understanding of personal branding.

Is it the fault of the student that they are not actively pursuing their career while juggling deadlines for their history exam, their English paper, and their internship? Is it the fault of the university that the English teacher doesn’t make a connection between critical reading skills and the real world, the adviser doesn’t advise beyond the pinnacle goal of graduation day, or the business professor teaches theories without obvious ties to how they will help the student move from graduate to employed professional? Or, with the majority of students getting mentored on a profession by their parents (37 %), maybe it’s the parent’s fault?

Most likely, it’s no one person’s fault. The career game has changed, while the players have been slow to change with it. Look at the numbers in this study. We need to find a way to tap into the power of social media to boost employment, to use the tools in the university to prepare students for a career, and utilize the influence of parents to mentor students through the different phases in their lives.

We also need to look beyond the measurements of success in this study and, rather than asking how students can improve their branding, ask how we can optimize the college experience so students see the big picture, find their passion, and get inspired.

With high unemployment and college costs at an all-time high, we need to be as practical as we can with today’s students about how and what they learn and about how that learning is connected to their future course work, graduation, and their career and professional outcomes.  Academic coaching is the tool that can do just that. On February 27, Maureen Breeze and Mary Haynes will be presenting an Introduction to Academic Coaching at the preconference for the National Association for Developmental Education (NADE) conference in Denver. For more information on attending the NADE event, call Brittany at 303-327-5688.

Find more interesting stats and the full study here: Are College Students Setting Themselves Up for Future Job Failure?

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