Higher Ed Utah

How do we best prepare students for success in the 21st century? This is, perhaps, the most profound question we face as educators and is a question all the state’s colleges and universities take seriously.

The world is rapidly changing, as are the needs of employers. In a recent national survey by Hart Research Associates, employers report that in addition to a solid disciplinary depth, the top skills they look for in new employees include effective oral and written communication, analytical reasoning, past real world experience through internships and other service learning, and the ability to connect choice and actions to ethical decisions. By these standards, 75 percent of employers surveyed agreed recent college graduates do not have the skills to be successful in today’s global economy. In essence, narrow learning and mere credentialing is no longer good enough for the complexities of our world economy.

It is also a fact that up-and-coming professionals will change career tracks multiple times. In other words, the best career preparation is one that positions the graduate with a set of transferable intellectual and practical skills, applicable in a variety of contexts.

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