Over the next 10 years, more boomers will leave the workforce and need new skilled workers to take their place. Not only will the next generation of workers inherit careers over the next decade, the BLS predicts there will be more growth in jobs that require an associate’s degree, while jobs that require long-term on-the-job training will diminish.

With the 2012 average national unemployment rate ranging from 8 to 9%, and a threat of a returning recession, we must focus on what drives employability in this market. Young adults were among the hardest hit in the recession with only 54 percent of Americans ages 18 to 24 finding employment in 2012. Unemployment in young adults can cause many lasting problems for the economy:

• No additional financial help for struggling family.
• May dropout of high school or college for a working opportunity.
• Won’t gain transferable working skills at low-skill jobs.
• Delayed independence, marriage, and large purchases and investments.

In 1984, when I graduated from college into the country’s last bad recession, I was one of the fortunate and the few to find a job at the time. I began working two days after I graduated from college while other people I knew left for Europe, graduate programs, volunteer opportunities like Peace Corps, or took jobs beneath their education level until the economy turned around. One of the only reasons I was hired, being a hard-working graduate from a state school, is because in college I held two unpaid internships in both Washington, D.C. and New York City. I waited on tables those summers to earn my way. What I learned on those internships would be invaluable to me as I began my first job.  The insight that I gained from juggling a white-collar job by day and a minimum-wage job by night showed me two worlds. One was where I was going with my education, know-how, and ambition. The other represented a world where, no matter how hard you worked, it would be hard to make ends meet.

Today, we are quibbling over paid or unpaid internships. My unpaid internships were the best financial investments I could have made. At age twenty-six, I was promoted to assistant vice-president and Director of Marketing and I was the first female to hold the position in an industry, which, at the time, had mostly men in higher positions and mostly women as assistants. Students in America need internships –for college credit or for no pay.

Students need an education outside of school to give a context for learning. Success in college, career, and life can only be gleaned through making seemingly unrelated connections.  If students don’t risk to do and to fail, how can they know what they might really achieve? It’s not just about what students know in the 21^st century, it is also about what they know how to do. If we don’t all wake up to that reality, we will continue to fail students and fail ourselves.

Higher education usually leads to higher pay and more job opportunities. With high unemployment rates, more people are staying in school longer — or returning to school — to reap these increased employment opportunities. In 2009, bachelor’s degree holders earned more than twice as much as those without a high school diploma, 50 percent more than those with a high school diploma, and 25 percent more than associate’s degree holders.¹

In his New York Times education blog, The Choice, Professor Daniel F. Chambliss tells high school juniors the number one rule for college basics:

“First, you must go. Unless you have a good trade (electrician, plumber) or plan a military career, a college degree is necessary for a decent life in 21st-century America.”2

He also warns, it will be expensive. In fact, the tuition is one of the top two reasons students choose not to attend higher education in the first place. The average yearly tuition is $25,000, or $100,000 for 4 years.³Â Some students are willing to take the risk of a hefty college investment, however, it might be a bigger risk than some students can afford to make.

According to the article “5 College Degrees That Aren’t Worth the Cost,” bachelor’s degree holders can be less financially stable than a high school graduate because of the years they spend taking out loans and not receiving an income. (Many students put work on hold attending college.) That paired with the average bill of $100,000 for a 4-year education puts college grads in a pile of debt as they enter the workforce, with many requiring a salary that pays $40,000 a year to afford basic living necessities and loan payments.

Another reality for today’s college student is that it may take more than four years to complete a bachelor’s degree, causing the price of college to extend for additional years that weren’t accounted for in the planning stage of college. A Harvard Graduate School of Education study in 2011 shows 56 percent of college students completed a 4-year degree in six years. In the Reuters article “Why College Students Stop Short of a Degree,” Lou Carlozo gives multiple real-life examples of how students are having to weigh the cost of dropping out versus being burdened by debt.⁴

From career schools to law school, an education is and always will be a gamble. Before signing on for student debt, students must consider whether the risks and rewards of an education that is out of their price range is worth it. After weighing out all the factors, students may find a more affordable school with less prestige will give them more freedom after college than one with a higher price tag.

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¹“Income of Young Adults.” Accessed on 26 June 2012. National Center for Educational Statistics. http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=77

²“College Basics for High School Juniors,” by Daniel F. Chambliss. 25 June 2012. The Choice. Accessed on 26 June 2012. http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/college-basics-for-high-school-juniors/?ref=education

³“5 College Degrees that Aren’t Worth the Cost,” by JP. Accessed 26 June 2012. http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/my-money/2012/06/22/5-college-degrees-that-arent-worth-the-cost

⁴“Why College Students Stop Short of a Degree,” by Lou Carolozo. 27 March 2012. Reuters. Accessed on 27 March 2012. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/27/us-attn-andrea-education-dropouts-idUSBRE82Q0Y120120327

College students notoriously have overwhelming schedules. Many balance going to school full time, having part-or full-time employment, living on their own, and maintaining relationships. In the whirlwind of the college lifestyle, students can lose sight of how college should support and propel their career, and instead become only focused on grades and graduation day.

The world of work is changing, and whether it scares or excites you, one thing is for certain: you shouldn’t be surprised if your job doesn’t exist in two decades. Many people are fearful of the changing workforce because it means uncertainty, foreign technology, and possible unemployment. However, the recent Fast Company article “The Career of the Future Doesn’t Include A 20-Year Plan. It’s More Like Four,” shows change can be positive, and something you should expect more of in your career.

In the article, Anya Kamentz profiles three different kinds of professionals who have held a variety of positions, and predict more in their future. Adam Hasler, 28, has moved from taking over a coffeehouse to learning programming and applying to MIT over the last 5 years. Cheryl Edmonds, 61, received her avionics training for an Air Force reservist in 1976, was an engineer at IBM, taught English in China, and now works at a non-profit. Stacy Brown-Philpot, 36, earned her undergrad in economics, worked for Goldman Sachs, got her MBA from Stanford, worked with startups for free, and ended up at Google. All three of these workers have the same attitude about their careers: they want to keep learning and growing.

But, you might wonder, isn’t it a liability to have multiple spurts of short-term employment on your resume? Not necessarily. New employers are considering short-term employment a benefit if it falls in one of two categories, according to Judy Gilbert, director of “people operation’s” at Google’s YouTube: One, the change is due to them being promoted within the company, or two, the change shows an intention behind their leaving a job, such as they grew out of the company because they needed a challenge.

The professional of the past might have looked for a comfy position they could be in until retirement, but the new professional has the following skills to make them more movable and desirable:

• Transdisciplinary: A “T-shaped” person with both depth in one subject and breadth in another can be hirable in multiple jobs. For instance, Adam Hasler is fluent in Spanish and has strong computational skills.
• Synthesizing and collaborating: These people can take their knowledge from multiple areas and collaborate with a team to learn even more.
• Dynamic: Because the jobs of the future don’t exist yet, employers want to hire people who can adjust to new tasks.

Much of the change and uncertainty in the careers of the future will be due to technological advances, but it’s not quite the time to worry about a computer taking over your job. The advantage humans still have over computers is social intelligence, and these are the skills the employers of the future will be looking for. “[In the future,] everything that can be routinized, codified, and dissected will eventually be done by machines,” says Marina Gorbis at the Institute for the Future. “Social and emotional intelligence is what humans are uniquely good at–at least for the next decade or two.”

• How can you be an agent of change for you own interests and abilities? How can you create your own career opportunities?
• How can you be flexible and embrace work which is both difficult and personally challenging?
• How can you be an academic and career coach for others based on what you yourself have learned?

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Source:

“The Career Of the Future Doesn’t Include A 20-Year Plan. It’s More Like Four,” by Anya Kamentz. 9 January 2012. Fast Company. Accessed on 11 January 2012. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/162/average-time-spent-at-job-4-years