Anthony Carnevale and his colleagues at the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce wrote an editorial last week for Inside Higher Ed in which they argue colleges have “failed to adequately connect college and careers.” Carnevale uses criticism of for-profit colleges’ marketing practices as a launching pad to comment on the postsecondary education system in general.
“The current dust-up,” he writes, “shouldn’t be about for-profit colleges being all bad, nor about public colleges being off the hook.”
Instead, the conversation should really be about how career education orients a student to various job markets and attempts to educate those students on potential careers using reliable, local, up-to-date information.
In a lot of ways, the debate has to do with bad information, or perhaps “no information.” Clever marketing with promises of abundant high-paying careers may get students enrolled, but if the educators cannot follow up and make connections to good jobs, the student is often left with no job and lots of newly acquired debt, which is really bad for marketing.
So is there a source for real career advice that educators should be tapping into? What can the subway ads, late-night infomercials, and shiny brochures that Carnevale mentions focus on?
Well, we just begged the question … labor market information. Yes, labor market information is a great source that educators could and should tap into to help students. Labor market data includes in-depth information on, among other things, industries trends and occupations by county and even ZIP code. This data allows jobseekers to get a sense of what potential careers are worth pursuing and where training might have the biggest bang for the buck.
EMSI has recently created the detailed elements of such a system. In fact, the much-needed ingredients Carnevale outlines for a career guidance system — employment data, occupational competency and program information, and job openings — are exactly what we have brought together in Career Coach. The web app, which colleges can place anywhere on their website and make available to the public, helps educate students about good local careers and connects those careers to a college’s programs.
Career Coach presents this crucial local information in a simple, user-friendly interface — which Carnevale wrote “is the next step, if we wish for this information to be useful for consumers.”
Imagine being able, with a few clicks and keystrokes, to explore various careers, find out how many jobs are currently available in the field, how many there are likely to be over the next several years in your area, what education and training programs exist in your local area and online, what they cost, what financial aid is available, and what the average salaries are for graduates of each program. Such a system would empower individuals to choose careers that would truly benefit them, and encourage institutions to offer programs that would prepare them for the jobs that will actually exist.
To see an example of Career Coach in action, visit Walla Walla Community College’s website or email Rob Sentz.
We simply must get more advisors engaged with the career result of an education. Nice work.