The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the findings from the Strada Education Foundation and the Burning Glass Institute, which analyzed the career trajectories of over 10 million people during the last ten years, finding that over half of this population is underemployed – meaning, working in jobs that do not use the skills they build and studied in their degrees, and also meaning that they make only around 25% more than a high school graduate, whereas college graduates who are working in jobs commensurate with their educational background make approximately 90% more. The study showed that first jobs can make or break a person's career trajectory, and internships are proving more important than ever in setting students up for career success. Lifelong financial earnings are inextricably linked to these college and first-few-years after college years.

Statistics from the Pew Research Center contribute to the picture, indicating that recent college graduates are more likely to be underemployed than college graduates overall, and that of those not pursuing a college degree, affordability is the most oft-cited reason. 

To find and keep jobs that use what they've learned and earn salaries that provide sustainable support, students need more from their college experience than the knowledge they gain in the classroom. They need self-knowledge and self-management, they need to know how to take practical action, and they need to understand transferable skills that display professionalism. Coaching delivers all three. In fact, it could be argued that coaching has grown in the higher education space precisely because it can fill the gap that has been growing over the last generation, driven by technological and workplace change so rapid that change in education is struggling to keep up.

Over the next three weeks we'll explore how coaching drives personal growth, practical action, and professionalism, devoting a week to each. Tune back in for more about why coaching is a key weapon—for advisors and faculty— in the fight to help students graduate into jobs that make the most of what they've worked so hard to learn. For those who are First Gen, BIPOC and most represented in these statistics, a much deserved, positive financial horizon can reverse generations of poverty. Here are questions for each student you coach:

• How will your habits, commitments and actions as a student contribute to your professional success?

• What connection is there between how you would rate yourself as a learner and how you would rate yourself as an earner? If those are not highly aligned, what is that costing you? How might you address that so that you open up the greatest number of professional opportunities for yourself? (Even if you don’t know yet what you want to do)

Join us for an Inclusive Coaching course to broaden your coaching skills even further. 

3-Day Inclusive Coaching

April 12, 19, 26 (Fridays)

(additional dates below)