Students feel colleges could do more to prepare them for joining the workforce

Up to 67 percent of students feel that colleges could do more to prepare them for their future careers, found a McGraw-Hill Education survey.

The 2016 Workforce Readiness Survey, conducted by analytics firm Hanover Research, uncovered that while students are generally satisfied with their college experiences, many would have liked:

• More internships and professional experiences – 67 percent

• More time to focus on career preparation – 59 percent

• Better access to career preparation tools – 47 percent

• More alumni networking opportunities – 34 percent

According to the survey, only four in 10 college seniors graduating in the class of 2016 felt their college experience helped them gain a career.

Most students reported that hadn’t been trained on how to network or search for a job (59 percent), or how to conduct themselves in a job interview (58 percent) throughout their time at college.

McGraw-Hill Education’s group president of U.S. education, Peter Cohen, said: “Despite the increasing cost of attending college, it continues to be a great investment for young people to make in their futures if they graduate.”

“It should be our collective goal to maximize the experience so students can feel confident they’ll have a successful career after finishing their higher education journey. While no two students’ career aspirations are the same, every college graduate deserves to enter the workforce with the confidence that their degree was worth the investment,” he added.

More and more students are worrying about what happens after college, as 71 percent reported that planning for a rewarding career while they are in college was “extremely important” and more than 61 percent said that they were pursuing a major that would help them to secure a job after graduation.

Compared to students of other fields, Arts and Humanities majors felt the least prepared to join the workforce: 18 percent felt they were “not at all prepared” for their careers, and 61 percent were less likely to feel optimistic about their job prospects after graduating.

When it comes to developing useful skills for their careers, 85 percent of college students believe that having used technology in classes or to study has helped to make them a better job candidate, and 89 percent use study technologies at least occasionally. Those most likely to use study technologies are Business and Economics majors (65 percent).

When asked to identify the skills they believe would make them more attractive to prospective employers, students tended to cite “interpersonal skills” (78 percent) more than any other attribute, followed by “grades/GPA” (67 percent), “a degree in a marketable field” (67 percent), and “internship experience” (60 percent).

Image via Flickr.

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