Tag: career preparation

Article of Note: Employers’ Confidence in Higher Education Reflects Value of Vocational Exploration and Preparation

In December, the American Association of Colleges and Universities released a report highlighting employer support for higher education’s role in preparing students for uncertain futures. The findings emphasize the importance of vocational exploration, informed citizenship, and community engagement, showcasing how colleges equip graduates with essential skills valued by employers.

In December, just as many of us were wrapping up courses and preparing for a much needed break, the American Association of Colleges and Universities released a report—“The Agility Imperative: How Employers View Preparation for an Uncertain Future”—that should give many readers of this blog reason to feel confident about the vocational work we do to prepare students for their lives after college. In conversation with Inside Higher Ed, Ashley Finley, AAC&U’s vice president and report author, said that in contrast to the skepticism colleges and universities face from many Americans, “employers are higher education’s biggest fans. They value the ways in which colleges are preparing students to be nimble and agile for an uncertain future.”

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The Myth of the Linear Career

The post highlights the importance of guiding students in their career paths, emphasizing ongoing reflection and exploration instead of adhering to common, linear trajectories. It illustrates various career stages and encourages openness to non-linear paths, underscoring the fluidity of modern careers. Future posts will discuss the concept of “coddiwompling” as a purposeful journey.

When I ask former students who have recently graduated how they embarked on their current career path, the answers are often strikingly similar: “I’m not sure,” they often say, “it just happened.” They choose jobs because they are available and seem acceptable at the time. They sometimes also admit, “My parents told me this was a good field to work in.” As a result, these students have begun their professional lives in careers that lack purpose and fulfillment, yet they still expect upward mobility and ever-increasing success.

In my last post, I made a case for encouraging students to engage in deep vocational discernment and reflection as they embark on their careers, rather than succumbing to the most common paths students often take in this moment: accident or happenstance, apathy, and social pressure. To support this process, we need to encourage students to view vocational and career discernment as an ongoing, regular reflection and reassessment activity.

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Creating a New Narrative for Theatre: Theatre as Vocation

This post discusses the importance of theatre as a vocation that fosters community, self-discovery, and resilience among students. It challenges common myths about theatre being a frivolous or unviable career by highlighting its diverse career possibilities and the life skills gained through theatrical training. The author advocates for recognizing theatre’s true value.

A series on the role of theatre in vocation, with a focus on how it supports community-building, the uncommon good, and vocational exploration and discernment for all our students.

Lights up on theatre professor’s office. STUDENT sits across from PROFESSOR, tears running down their cheeks. PROFESSOR is used to this, has multiple tissue boxes around.

STUDENT

All I’ve ever wanted to do is theatre. But my parents said they’ll disown me if I major in it.

PROFESSOR

Why are they against it?

STUDENT

They say I won’t get a job, I’ll be poor. They think it’s not a real career, it’s just a hobby. They don’t take it seriously.

PROFESSOR offers tissue box as scene fades to black.

woman in white long sleeve shirt holding papers
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com
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Experiential Learning is the New College

At Friends University, pre-health students engage in professional shadowing to gain real-world experience and clarify their vocations and career paths. These activities have shown to be instrumental, helping students assess their interests and capabilities in various healthcare professions. Reflections from these experiences often reveal significant insights into their vocational choices.

Prince Agbedanu

As pre-health students wrestle with doubts about the paths they’ve chosen or struggle to find their place within the healthcare sector, vocational exploration is more crucial now than it ever has been. In our pre-health programs at Friends University, students want to engage in activities that give them real-life experience to help them navigate these challenges. These students want to know that their learning is useful and applies to their careers—to see with greater clarity their professional futures as they begin their training for it. In short, they want experiential learning.

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Toni Morrison and the Call to Imagine

Perhaps it is less clear, or less clearly stated, however, that robust career preparation requires the intentional and focused cultivation of the imagination—the ability to dream, speculate, and create the world not as it is but as it might and should be.

Throughout my time as a college educator, the purpose of higher education has become more and more tied to career preparation. This is not news to anyone. The shift to career preparation has been explained, re-explained, and debated by many of us for the last decade with few surprises along the way, save for the occasional fresh takes like Dan Barrett’s recovery of what he calls “The Day the Purpose of College Changed.”

In many ways, the attention and resources being given to career services align with best practices and offer holistic care for students as learners and as people. Colleges and universities must take career preparation seriously not only to recruit and retain students and thus survive this era of uncertainty but also to support students’ intellectual, social, mental, and economic wellness. Career preparation is, in my mind, a matter of justice in higher education today. It is also, however, too often narrowly designed and practiced.

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