Wanted: Education Models That Do Not Squander Talent

?Fifty-two percent of college graduates in the US are in jobs that do not need a four-year degree, according to a new study. Moreover, 73% of graduates who start out underemployed in this way remain so 10 years after completing college.

The research underscores the urgent need for new, flexible education models that give people more career options and enable them to fulfill their potential.

The report, Talent Disrupted: College Graduates, Underemployment, and the Way Forward, is published by the Burning Glass Institute and Strada Institute for the Future of Work, organizations specializing in research on talent pipelines. They analyzed the work profiles of individuals who graduated between 2012 and 2021 using a dataset that included 10.8 million people with only a bachelor’s degree, 6.3 million with a master’s degree, and 1.6 million with a doctorate or equivalent.

The report says that underemployment (the experience of four-year degree grads in jobs that don’t typically require a bachelor’s degree) incurs a high financial cost. A recent graduate employed in a college-level job typically earns about 88% more than a high-school diploma holder. However, an underemployed graduate typically earns only around 25% more than someone with no education beyond high school. Underemployed graduates earn 33% less than those in college-level jobs. These disparities can be especially punishing for underemployed grads with high levels of college debt.

In addition to the financial penalties are the personal frustrations of underachieving and the societal costs of squandered talent. The research estimates that among underemployed recent graduates, 88% work in jobs that typically require only a high-school education, such as retail sales and food service.

The research offers insights that can help people reduce the risk of underemployment. Degree choice is an important factor. The study indicates that graduates with degrees in less math-intensive business fields are more than twice as likely to be underemployed than those with math-oriented skills like engineering. Internships are identified as a crucial stepping stone toward securing a successful career.

Choosing the right job early on appears to be critically important, too. Only 16% of college grads in the study who initially were severely underemployed escaped to college-level employment within five years of graduation. Individuals can be pigeonholed quickly in today’s bot-driven candidate selection processes.

Another way to stem the tide of wasted talent is to provide educational models that make it easier for individuals to pursue the right career path and acquire the skills needed to succeed in their chosen occupations. These models must be flexible – for example, by allowing people to learn when and where they choose – and widely available. And they must empower learners to reach their full potential.

The MITx MicroMasters Program in Supply Chain Management, launched by the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics in 2015, is an example of this new breed of educational platform. In 2022, the program reached its one-millionth enrollment. To date, learners from 190 countries have enrolled in over 75 MicroMasters course instances.

The online program is based on MIT CTL’s Supply Chain Master’s on-campus program, one of the world’s first graduate-level courses in supply chain management. Anyone can enroll in the MicroMasters program for free and take its five courses annually. The certification program provides learners worldwide with a way to gain and demonstrate expertise in the growing supply chain management (SCM) field.

Learners who want to go further can pay a modest fee and study (including doing problem sets and taking exams) to gain the MicroMasters credential in SCM. Credential holders who have completed the courses and the final exam can apply for an accelerated five-month master’s degree at MIT through the Blended Supply Chain Management Program.

Innovative programs like MicroMasters help people avoid the underemployment pitfall in various ways. They provide a path to professional education that does not commit them to a four-year degree (although they can still do this if they choose). Individuals can tailor academic studies to their lifestyles and ambitions and use the experience to explore career options and change tracks if necessary. Also, the MicroMasters program is closely aligned with industry needs. On average, MicroMaster credential holders have more than 10 years of industry experience.

The employment challenges described in the Burning Glass/Strada report will become even more daunting as AI redefines job markets. As I wrote in a LinkedIn post titled How Humans and AI Can Work Together:

Future job specs must account for the advantages of machines (e.g., accuracy, ability to perform work continuously) in combination with the benefits of humans (e.g., recognizing context, the ability to spot structural changes, flexibility).

In an AI-driven world, highly adaptive education models are more important than ever if people are to navigate an ever-changing employment landscape successfully.