Should Universities Prepare Graduates for The Job Market?

An enormous amount of pressure has been laid by the society to revise the purpose of universities during the past years (AAC&U, 2012 cited in Chan et. al., 2014). On one hand, the purpose of universities is to teach graduates social skills so they can contribute to build better foreseeable future for the society. On the other hand, it would also be argued that the purpose of higher education is to perform what the society requires, which is preparing graduates for the workforce. This essay will first explore the opponent arguments and secondly, it will argue that universities primarily should train students for the workforce. 

Opponents of the concept that the primary mission of higher education institutions should be preparing students for the workforce are holding diversity of opinions. An example of this, the claim that universities exist to promote social justice and make the society a better place (Schwartz, 2003). Schwartz (2003) suggest that higher education institutions have indirect benefit when graduates transfer the moral and the social skills to who did not study at university or college. Others such as Chan et. al. (2014) share this view that universities goal is to improve students logic, communication skills problem solving, moral principles and produce sophisticated standards. Additionally, Starson (2013) uses his notes from a 50 minuets CV writing seminar, in which students have to write a CV, to argue that the conception of employability has developed and started to dominate the students’ perception and higher education institutions as well. He suggests that education for employment purpose teaches market values at the account of social and communication skills, which in a way closes student’s brains, rather than teach them to improve alternative thinking. Furthermore, it tends to be in conflict with the basic objective of higher education to develop students’ communication skills when universities have been treated as institutes teaching advanced career and specialized work skills, which therefore has led to the increase of higher education privatization and corporatization (McArthur, 2011; Watty, 2006 cited in Chan et. al., 2014). Thus, the ultimate mission of higher education institutions is to create new generation who will build the society by solid environmental and social responsibilities (Haigh and Clifford cited in Chan et. al., 2014).

It might be true that universities have been founded to teach knowledge and communication skills; however, this does not necessarily exclude other appreciable skills related to employment. Although Starson’s (2013) view seems persuasive, there are strong opposing arguments, which are even more so stronger. First, businesses are clearly not separate from the society, but part of it. As stated above, the outcomes of higher education institutions have great implications on the potential success of the businesses and could drive the next direction of country’s economy (Playfoot & Hall, 2009). The global business is changing and has become more complex, which consequently has required skilled employees to perform the job (Westerheijden et. al., 2007 cited in Chan et. al., 2014). As a result, businesses strive to recruit employees already equipped with the skills that the job needs (Playfoot & Hall, 2009). Another important factor to be considered, that university education has not been sufficient to improve the job skills since there is a great deviation between current businesses requirements and higher education structure (Playfoot & Hall, 2009). The effort of higher education institutions to revise courses, teaching methodology and assessment system have been made to confirm that all university students complete a university degree with the required characteristics and skills and therefore to achieve current businesses requirements (Westerheijden et. al., 2007 cited in Chan et. al., 2014). Hence, the presence of highly skilled workforces to perform job requirements has been constantly demanded by the swift technological business complexity and global knowledge based economy (ibid).

An even stronger argument for the view that the mission of universities primarily should be training students for the workforce, is that students’ expectations and perceptions about the purpose of higher education have been changed. A major contribution to this change can be explained by the fact that students enroll into universities under huge social and financial pressures (Chan et. al. 2014). An illustration of this is the society encouragement to students to apply for vocational courses. Clearly then, students value the contents of a certain course as long it leads to a lucrative career (Kandiko & Mawer, 2013). According to Starson (2013), paying the enormous student loans back to banks has presented a strong financial pressure on the students; hence, pursuing full-time job following graduation has been students’ objective. The association between universities and employment and the reflection of this on the course content have been expected by students indeed (Kandiko & Mawer, 2013). Nevertheless, it seems that employability cannot be isolated from education process as the evaluation of a specific university is based on number of graduates who have been full time hired after graduation in a period of six months.

From the arguments discussed above, it can be concluded that higher education institutions do not always prepare students for the workforce, or even develop professional skills. However, the current world economy is constantly improving, reliance on organizations and employment skills. Moreover, the long-term success of an organization conceivably requires a level of sound employment skills. The principal purpose of higher education therefore should target vital preparations for workforce. Ultimately, it is recommended that basic education system should be addressed before professional skills can be taught for workforce. Besides, the association between business and education should be addressed as well.