The way we work and learn has changed significantly in the past year with the current climate of our society. Yet even before a tumultuous 2020, business and the way we prepare our students for the working world was changing rapidly with advances in technology and the shift toward a gig economy.
Some studies now show that people will change careers 17 times in their life! In 2020, career agility is no longer just about changing jobs—it’s about learning the necessary skills to prepare you for the next one.
As traditional career paths fade, we must continue to adapt and innovate if we want to thrive. There are significant challenges arising from the rapidly changing workforce that we can address now to create more agile students and therefore a more agile workforce for the future.
Challenge 1: Knowledge Does Not Equal Skill
Fresh out of university, there are well-educated students without jobs in their field—and companies do not want to hire these students. Why? Because knowledge does not equal skill.
The differences are imperative: knowledge is learning something, but skills are formed from practice and experience. With knowledge, you cannot necessarily replicate something you know—that will only come with practice.
An example: One of our colleagues is a part of the Kern Entrepreneur Education Network (KEEN) and participated in a study with 18 private engineering schools across the United States. The study compared the skills of 5,000 undergraduates and their entrepreneurial-minded counterparts in the field. It identified seven performance skills critical for success in the workplace and tested the undergraduates as freshmen and again as seniors.
It showed that four years at university had not grown these performance skills at all. While the students had gained knowledge in their field, they still had not learned how to do the things that would make them successful.
Challenge 2: Employee Training
In addition to the knowledge-skills gap, employers often find that they spend valuable time and resources training their new employees—a waste when so often these same employees quickly leave the company for new opportunities.
Like the engineers in the study, many other graduates are simply missing the skills necessary to thrive in the workplace, and this is a missed opportunity for educators and businesses alike. Rather than leave it to employers to train their employees, we should bridge the gap between business and education. Reshaping our curriculum and updating subject materials so that they are relevant and industry-driven is crucial to achieving greater work readiness.
Solutions to this challenge have arrived even this past year with the onset of distance learning. In 2020, students were forced to learn these necessary workplace skills the hard way—they now have to manage themselves and their time, think critically on their own and relate to others in a virtual setting. This is an opportunity to reach students earlier in their skill development in progress right in front of us.
Challenge 3: Wrong Problem, Right Person
Another problem we find, often too late in life, is that people choose career paths that are not the right fit for them. Whether that is because their skillset or their talent does not match the career or they do not have the passion for that path, their value creation and their satisfaction in their work will suffer significantly. Reaching students at a young age to help them identify where they can contribute is a great opportunity. This is where the six principles of innovation are crucial in helping our students.
If we can give students the tools and framework to understand their own talents within the innovation continuum, they make leaps towards future agility in the workforce. When students understand the 6 stages of innovation, how they personally work, and how others around them work, they are better able to make the career decisions that are right for them—giving the workforce and surrounding community the right people for the right problems.
Facing these three challenges requires the efforts of everyone in the community. But addressed head-on, the future agility of the workforce will improve significantly. We have three recommended solutions on how to advance career agility for your students and yourself that you can begin to implement immediately.
Recommendation 1: Agility in Curriculum and Counseling
Educational institutions should work to expand their understanding of the metrics organizations use to match people to jobs. Industries are changing. By next year, the practices in place this year will be irrelevant. Without up-to-date knowledge, students will go into the workforce unprepared, and both they and the businesses will suffer. Career counselors must have the latest information from industries to prepare students.
For curriculums, we must think first about the students—integrating individual abilities and skills into the programs. We cannot continue to treat every student the same, or else we are missing opportunities. If we know who our students are and how they fall into the six categories of innovation, we can place them where their skills, talents, and passions will create the most value for themselves and for the economy.
Recommendation 2: Collaboration Between Business and Education
Educators cannot prepare our students for the workforce alone. Both educators and employers must look for opportunities to share industry knowledge and practices. Employers can share what skills they are looking for in future employees, what tools they use to make hiring and promotional decisions, so that educators may innovate their curriculum. This initiative is helpful even locally and with the youngest students.
Recommendation 3: Partner with Us
We believe strongly in the partnership between business and education—and we want to help. Reach out to us to learn more about identifying how students and employees can work together to create value. Our assessments and trainings have helped students worldwide as they choose courses of study and transition into the work world. We believe that when students understand how they can contribute to growth, they will be more satisfied in their working life.
Remember, collaboration becomes magic when you have shared interests and shared values. But you need more—you need diversity of perspectives, of capabilities, and of networks. Diversity of perspective enriches the conversation and helps you find more opportunities together than you would have never found alone. You need different skill sets to execute each facet of your collaboration, and when you and I bring our networks together, the impact of our collaboration can be exponential. With these recommendations, education and business can create enormous value for our future.
Watch Dr. Evans Baiya and Ron Price present their thoughts on this topic at the 3rd Annual Age of Agility: The Governor’s Summit on the Future of Work, sponsored by Idaho Workforce Development Council and Idaho Business for Education. October 7, 2020.
