40 Percent of College Grads Lack Skills for White Collar Jobs
Obviously, American colleges need more core requirements in gender studies and social justice.
Douglas Belkin reports at the Wall Street Journal.
Test Finds College Graduates Lack Skills for White-Collar Jobs
Four in 10 U.S. college students graduate without the complex reasoning skills to manage white-collar work, according to the results of a test of nearly 32,000 students.
The test, which was administered at 169 colleges and universities in 2013 and 2014 and released Thursday, reveals broad variation in the intellectual development of the nation’s students depending on the type and even location of the school they attend.
On average, students make strides in their ability to reason, but because so many start at such a deficit, many still graduate without the ability to read a scatterplot, construct a cohesive argument or identify a logical fallacy.
“Even if there is notable growth over four years, many students are starting at such a low point they may still not be proficient at the point of graduation,” said Jessalynn K. James, a program manager at the Council for Aid to Education, which administered the test. The CAE is a New York-based nonprofit that once was part of Rand Corp.
The exam, known as the Collegiate Learning Assessment Plus, measures the intellectual gains made between freshman and senior year. The test doesn’t cover subject-area knowledge; rather it assesses things like critical thinking, analytical reasoning, document literacy, writing and communication—essentially mimicking the baseline demands for professionals.
Test Finds College Graduates Lack Skills for White-Collar Jobs (The Wall Street Journal)
Comments
Nor would I necessarily expect colleges to equip students with the most important skills for white collar jobs. Colleges provide knowledge, which is quite different from skills. Liberal arts majors should also learn critical thinking skills in their classes. STEM majors should learn problem solving skills in their classes. Undergraduate majors do not equip students with people skills or the skills to work effectively within a team. With the possible exception of a few scholarly courses in the business colleges, there is no structured teaching in leadership.
In the past when I interviewed dozens of soon to graduate college students, I looked for proof of internal fire to pursue a career, a thirst for learning, humility, the capacity to listen, people skills, the ability to form reasoned judgments, and experience working effectively in groups. These crucial attributes the students must learn outside the classroom, and they are essential when growing a successful professional career.
I think the problem goes back further, to grade school. So much office work is, at base, “homework” and independent study.
No foundation, what can be built?