Kathie Lingle's Work-Life Blog

Who's Prepping the Kids for Work?

Dec. 21, 2007 — Matthew Cohen of ConnectEdu — one of AWLP and WorldatWork valued supporters as well as a unique service provider to the work-life field — recently posted a compelling entry on the new Future of Work bulletin board on the WorldatWork Web site.  (By the way, for those of you who may not be frequent users of this valuable feature of membership, there are multiple bulletin boards that might be of interest to you:  Work-life, Compensation, Benefits, Total Rewards, etc.) He reminds us about the research study earlier this year by Corporate Voices for Working Families which revealed that more than 40% of high school graduates lack the skills they need to enter the workforce. This dismal situation obviously doesn’t bode well for employers, nor will it bolster America’s continued global leadership in innovation, which many sources are suggesting is eroding due to this and other root causes.

Matthew then poses an important question: What is being done to bridge the great divide between institutions of higher education (perpetually educating the next generation of employees and entrepreneurs) and business enterprises (perpetually in search of fresh, competent talent)?

Since an elaborated version of this same question was raised at the Workplace Flexibility Retreat  that we hosted in Utah last September — a meeting that convened just the combination of folks from universities and corporations who should know the answer — I invite those participants (and anyone else) to share what they know. 

While we await your input, Marilyn Kraut, HR Director at the University of Pennsylvania, did us all a great service by taking time after the Retreat to identify some existing efforts and resources that are actively working on some aspects of the transition from school to work, so let me share her task and the findings:

"The thought was to develop curriculum that would help…students make career decisions that match their personal goals and preferences for their lives.  Also, this could help them have a more realistic understanding of what they might face when they enter the workforce.  We wondered if there were Academic Career Services organizations that might be interested in participating in or supporting our effort to do this.  I offered to help us track down some of this information.

"I contacted the head of our College Career Counseling Office. She mentioned the National Association of Colleges and Employers and two networking groups: the Graduate Career Consortium and the Ivy Plus Career Center Directors Group.  She also mentioned the National Association of Law Placement (NALP) and I believe there are other similar organizations for traditional professional career paths…Stew Friedman at Wharton is an expert on this type of curriculum for business school students as well as leaders in the workplace, and Doug Frenkel, a professor in our law school, offers a course that helps law students think about their career plans along with personal goals.  I’m sure there are others elsewhere."

There was energy in the group around this issue, so who knows?  Perhaps this will become a topic for the next Work-Life Retreat.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of WorldatWork and its affiliate, Alliance for Work-Life Progress (AWLP).