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We have arrived at a watershed moment for higher education. Amidst the looming enrollment cliff, the lightning-fast growth of AI, the ever-increasing costs of college, and a tough job market, it has become ever more important for institutions to prove to students that what they offer is worth time, effort, and money. Even when students do commit to the journey, many of them are taking a transactional, performance-goal-focused approach — in other words, they look at the experience as a set of tasks designed to culminate in the GPA and the degree they want. As a result, they often feel the GPA and the diploma should be enough to guarantee them employability and a solid job placement.
Well, not so fast. The modern workplace has delivered a pretty strong message that a successful, promotable employee has to have much more than a nice transcript and a degree. Those college graduates who actually find a job commensurate with their credentials are finding that work requires more than executing a list of boxes to be checked. Supervisors are balking at the amount of training and hand-holding that they have to provide in order to bring new employees up to speed. Many employers are finding that new graduates lack the flexibility, problem solving, metacognition, and willingness to tolerate discomfort and ambiguity that so many jobs in the information economy demand. Only 8% of students take advantage of their career center and those who do, wait far too late.
The time is now to fill the gap between what students graduate with and what the workplace needs. Career-connected coaching and teaching, beginning with freshmen, can help students build actions and attitudes that drive learning and build adaptable, valuable employees. Coaching can illuminate the tools that students need to go beyond a transactional experience, and help them build the tool kit while in college so that they can take it with them into the workplace.
LifeBound focuses its trainings on career-connected coaching that helps students value the effort of learning, link skill-building to future goals, and maximize their employability. As an added bonus, this training also helps coaches with their own professional development, growth and efficacy. Coaches, advisors, faculty, and staff who train with LifeBound can contribute to a campus-wide culture of coaching, increasing the opportunity for students to encounter the mindset and actions that will sustain them in a workplace fraught with change and upheaval. This cross-curricular approach is a clarion call for Higher ED to answer at this mission-critical time where the value of a college degree needs to be clear and supported with both learning and employment.
Join us this month for career-connected coaching training:
To learn more or explore which option is right for you, visit www.lifebound.com.
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