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We’re back for a new year of exploring ideas and trends in higher education and EdTech. As I reviewed my list of saved topics for this post, I couldn’t help but notice how many of the readings resembled my Christmas dinner: substantial, rich, and requiring plenty of time to digest. For that meal, I enjoyed prime rib and Yorkshire pudding (which, much like my punctuation, could use some work). But what did I read?
Everybody’s working for the weekend
The Cicero Group conducted a comprehensive study for the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) and Talent Ready Utah, examining how well higher education graduates in the Beehive State are prepared for the workforce. This thorough (and lengthy—apparently, this was the week of mega reads) study addresses a topic of significant interest to almost everyone in higher education.
Cicero surveyed, conducted focus groups, and interviewed 600 representatives from a diverse range of industries across Utah. The findings focus on the following issues.
Skills. Employers are generally satisfied with graduates technical skills but find their durable skills lacking, in some areas in particular.
Collaboration. Employers would like to see greater collaboration between higher education and industry, including representation on boards, involvement in curriculum development and more classes being taught by industry professionals.
Work-Based Learning. Employers would like to see an expansion of work-based learning programs. They argue that their resources to expand these are constrained and so would like to see higher education play more of a role.
By "durable skills," they mean foundational or soft skills that employers often claim graduates lack—especially critical thinking, problem-solving, and managing stress, conflict, and time.
The report’s recommendations for addressing these weaknesses are unsurprising but somewhat underdeveloped: more presentations, group work, and in-person feedback from faculty. I’m not convinced that simply increasing these practices will lead to meaningful improvements. Perhaps it’s time to adopt an “across-the-curriculum” approach to these skills, fostering shared awareness and an intentional focus on developing them throughout all areas of study.
The report also included some notably awful suggestions, including one from an employer advocating for a more hardcore approach.
