Every College Student Deserves Career Readiness Opportunities
Robert McGuire
I build customized storytelling machines to engage audiences for higher ed, edtech and nonprofits. Message me for a client case study with measurable results.
Welcome to the May 20 edition of Worth it!
Worth it! rounds up the good news from institutions, coalitions and communities working to align academic and career success. I believe better stories are hiding in plain sight that answer questions about the value of college. I help higher ed, nonprofits and edtech companies tell those stories.
The theme of this edition is innovative extensions of career prep to every student. Look at these three great examples.
Inside Higher Ed reports from several colleges adding microcredentials that connect the dots between workplace skill demands and what students learn in fine arts, performing arts and the humanities.
For example at the 美国科罗拉多大学博尔德分校 :
The College of Music has developed a set of microcredentials in recent years, including an undergraduate badge in arts administration and certificates in topics including music technology, singing health and music entrepreneurship. The last comes with a minor in business in partnership with the university’s business school.
Feature reporting by Sara Weissman
Old Dominion University got a $5million grant from the Mellon Foundation to provide on-the-job training resources to humanities majors. It helps the university make progress on one leg of its strategic plan -- that every student have internship experience.
The academy will work with students in select majors to seek opportunities with companies and organizations that focus on social missions. Students will also be able to create electronic portfolios through the academy.
“The real promise of the Mellon investment into ODU students is the support of the value of a humanities education,” [Executive Director Barbara] Blake said. “Some of those key tenets of the humanities are so ideal for employers – skills in critical thinking, communication, cultural competency, creativity and innovation, adaptability and flexibility. There are multiple industries and multiple positions that need well-rounded candidates, and humanities students have a wide, diverse skill set.”
The previous edition of Worth It! included how the career center at Bowling Green State University is implementing the resources of the Work+Collective. Since then, a feature story from Strada Education Foundation paints a fuller picture of how that works.
Through existing student work opportunities, the Work+Collective institutions offer mentorship, student reflections, peer feedback, and educational programming intended to help working learners develop their sense of identity, agency, and purpose, as well as to enhance workforce preparedness.
At its core, Work+ and Work+Collective are designed to create more equitable outcomes for students who face the most barriers to postsecondary and career success — namely, first-generation college students, students of color, and students from low-income backgrounds. Across the country, these historically marginalized students come from families with lower household incomes than the national average of their peers, making it necessary for them to work to pay for school and interfering with their ability to pursue professional development opportunities such as internships.
Reporting from Alicia Garceau
Trends
Students these days have the option of virtual exchange programs. They collaborate with peers across the globe to build mobile apps, practice languages and make podcasts about climate change.
Projects like those will result from a $3.61million grant from the J. Christopher Stevens Virtual Exchange Initiative to 11 virtual exchange programs. 10,000 high school and college students will be connected from the United States, Middle East and North Africa.
Young people who participate will gain exposure to cross-cultural settings, take on new perspectives, work collaboratively on projects and in dialogue, and build digital literacy skills — which will equip them with the tools they need to succeed in an evolving and interconnected world.
Research
The latest version of the High School and Beyond longitudinal survey by the National Center for Education Statistics is out. Fifty-five percent of ninth-graders in fall 2022 expected to complete a postsecondary education credential.
The College Futures Foundation published a new report, Golden Opportunities: Measuring Return on Investment in California Higher Education for Low- and Moderate-Income Learners. It shows ROI within five years for graduates of public institutions in that state.
There is some nuance within the findings of course -- not every institution and not every program.
HT Michael Itzkowitz of HEA Group
Progress on cost challenges
The minimum TAP award has doubled from $500 to $1,000. The maximum annual award is $5,665. Additionally, the budget has raised the income thresholds to qualify for TAP, in a change that’s expected to benefit roughly 93,000 students, including 48,000 who are now newly eligible for TAP.
HT John McLoughlin
Campuses connecting the dots
Immaculate University in Pennsylvania published an article that maps the skills they teach their students to the skills that come up in LinkedIn's surveys of employers.
It turns out the Venn diagram is just a circle.
For over a century, Immaculata University has been addressing these sought-after soft skills with its comprehensive and holistic education approach. The curriculum not only supports the liberal arts but also educates students on how core competencies complement job requirements for in-demand careers. For example, since communication skills are so coveted by employers, students at lmmaculata hone their ability to convey ideas clearly and persuasively during their freshmen English composition course.
A double bill from Immaculata U today. They also published an article from a graduating senior about the career prep he derived from playing and studying in Division III.
The student-athlete experience represents a dedication to discipline, time management and numerous leadership skills. The path of being a student-athlete offered me the opportunity to grow and excel in the game I love, while preparing me for a successful future
Essay by Gregory Vlassopoulos
This new program is one of several in Connecticut resulting from a collaboration with industry as part of a tech-talent accelerator grant.
The workforce development initiative aims to help Connecticut reach its economic potential and close the skills gap in in-demand technology fields. The University’s was among seven technology education programs in the state to be selected in 2022 as part of an initiative to rapidly increase the competitiveness of the state’s postsecondary institutions and to meet growing business demand for tech skills, and is among a dozen institutions to receive funding during the second cycle of the grant.
Partners in the collaboration include: University of New Haven , Business-Higher Education Forum and ARSOME Technology
Since launching an undergraduate public policy certificate program in 2019, enrollment has quintupled. Now the school has have a $500,000 grant from Ascendium Education Group to start a major in the high-demand/high employment field.
A particular emphasis of the grant is relevant experiences, support for internships and developing employer partnerships for experiential learning.
Other great stories higher ed can tell
ASU Online line is watching the odometer and expects it to flip to 100,000 graduates this summer. I love the way Amanda Gulley talks about this:
ASU Online measures itself by whom they include; not whom they exclude.
That kind of energy is the reason I started this newsletter. Higher ed needs to counter the discourse in higher ed that centers schools that measure themselves by who they exclude.
Kevin Sanders at the The University of Memphis Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music shared a slide deck about how they bucked the trend on enrollment in the performing arts.
The secret? Talk to students about what they want to hear.
Which turns out not to be facilities, faculty research or curriculum reform. Instead it was career success.
Int he case of music students, that means stories and examples about internships, auditions, tours and performances. The school has built its messaging around that and applications are up 37 percent!
Momentum in the conversation
Good news/challenging news here. A Third Way survey shows people understand the value of a degree. Sold.
But they expect more accountability around career outcomes.
71% of voters believe that policymakers need to implement changes that require colleges and universities to provide value to students and make sure those who enroll get a return on their investment.
Worth it to me: Notes on a life of the mind
The last couple of weeks I've been re-reading two favorite authors who passed away recently.
One is Alice Munro, the Nobel winning short story master, who for my money came closest to the goal of James Joyce's alter ego: "Forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race."
What I love best in Munro's writing is her command of the limited third person narration, using it to create dramatic irony that gripped the reader with concern for the characters' fates.
The other author is Daniel Dennett, the philosopher of science who spent a lifetime theorizing how consciousness emerged just from the meat and chemicals between our ears. My understanding of the world and my place in it was changed about 10 years ago by his book Darwin's Dangerous Idea. Also, he was a hoot. For example:
“The juvenile sea squirt wanders through the sea searching for a suitable rock or hunk of coral to cling to and make its home for life. For this task, it has a rudimentary nervous system. When it finds its spot and takes root, it doesn't need its brain anymore, so it eats it! It's rather like getting tenure.”
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Remember . . . Higher ed has a better story to tell.
Send me yours for the next roundup.
-Robert