With the future job market harder to predict than ever before, here’s how to prepare your students for the unknown. Find out how to teach them transferable skills, make sure they’re digitally literate, ready them for the job application process, hone your university career services to perfection and work with industry
The leap from higher education to employment has always been a daunting one, but in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), the post-Covid remote-working revolution and the pressing danger of climate change, the vision of the future has never been murkier. Today’s students need their universities’ guidance to prepare for jobs that do not exist yet. Here’s how to teach them skills that will always be relevant, offer them the best career services possible, link to industry partners and get them application-ready.
Embedding transferable skills
Some skills will never become obsolete. While universities can’t prepare their students for every possible role, embedding soft skills such as critical thinking, communication and resilience will give them a rock-solid foundation from which to launch their careers.
Elizabeth Reid Boyd of Edith Cowan University offers her advice on teaching 10 human-centric skills, while Erica Estes and Sean O’Keefe of the University of Arkansas show how to integrate skills teaching into every facet of university life.
Application perfection
Help your students show their best selves to prospective employers, whether that’s through well written CVs, honing their interview skills or teaching them how to network. Lewis Humphreys at the London School of Economics and Political Science offers tips on prepping students for in-person and remote interviews, while the Clayton Christiansen Institute’s Julia Freeland Fisher offers tips on teaching them to network.
Provide guidance with careers services
Students searching for employment will be looking for careers advice on campus. Both in-person and online services can walk with students on their first few steps on the career path, offering guidance, practical help and industry contacts.
Post University’s Camille Dumont recommends modernising your career services, as Andy Wistow of the University of Bristol advocates for innovation.
A skillset for tomorrow’s workplace
The pace of digital transformation means we can’t know what the future of employment will look like. Here’s how to equip your students to use artificial intelligence (AI), juggle data and close the digital skills gaps.
AI can even help plan a career path, according to Teck Hua-Ho at the National University of Singapore, while David Joyner at Georgia Tech advises teaching students a full range of AI skills.
Bridge the gap between student and employer
Give your students’ graduate careers a jump-start by inviting their potential employers onto campus. Steven Hurst at Arden University offers tips on pleasing both learner and employer when it comes to apprenticeship courses, and academics from the University of the West of Scotland provide advice on creating an entrepreneurial culture.
