Rebecca Byerly’s Post

Lindsay Ellis and Vanessa Fuhrmans take a really thoughtful deep dive into important new research from Strada Education Foundation and The Burning Glass Institute in the The Wall Street Journal. I'm proud to be collaborating with their talented teams on this critical work. Among the key findings: 📌 Overall, 52% of grads with a terminal BA/BS are underemployed a year after graduation. 📌 Even a decade after graduation, 45% grads are underemployed. 📌 Grads who start out in a college-level job rarely slide into underemployment, as 79% remain in a college-level occupation five years after graduation. As Stephen Moret aptly put it: “We all need to be thinking of that first post-college job as a high-stakes milestone, and give it the attention it deserves." But there's reason for optimism -- the report also surfaces important levers we can pull to reduce underemployment and support students early - like expanding access to paid internships and personalized coaching. So don't miss the report, and the stories today in WSJ, Inside Higher Ed, Forbes, Washington Monthly, Work Shift, WorkingNation (and join us next week for a Whiteboard Advisors webinar to unpack the findings -- link in comments).

A huge finding out of Strada Education Foundation and The Burning Glass Institute this morning: About half of college graduates — far more than previously estimated — don't land jobs that make use of those skills. Instead, many are working jobs like office support, food services and retail sales. What's more, a decade after graduation, the vast majority of these underemployed grads still aren't in jobs that require degrees or college-level skills. This has a lasting impact on lifetime earnings. The groups analyzed more than 10 million resumes over a decade to make sense of these career paths. “You’re told your entire life, ‘Go to college, get a bachelor’s degree and your life is gonna be gravy after that,’” one 29-year-old who works security at a corporate facility in Cincinnati told me. “In reality, it hasn’t really helped me that much.” A few key takeaways: The major that someone picks really matters — and contrary to popular wisdom, some STEM and business degrees don't pay off the way others do. (We have more on this in the story.) Internships make a significant difference. And colleges and policymakers can do a lot to get students good information on what does and doesn't pay off. Story from me and the great Vanessa Fuhrmans: https://lnkd.in/ey-tCGcd

My degree's in Finance and Management. My first job's in banking in Indonesia, through family connections, and eventually through my own search with a recruiting company in Singapore that set my career path for the next 15+ years. Did I need my degree to land both jobs? Yes. Did I need the subjects to do the work? No. Did I need the life skills-living on my own, working-studying, making friends, problem solving, critical thinking, getting over failures? Yes. If I could do it again, would I take a different degree? No. I wanted to be a "creative" fashion designer but job and earning prospects eventually led me to decide on a "boring" degree. I would give same advice to my son, get a degree looking ahead 4-6 years. Passion is important, but cannot be everything. College ranking and academic performance are helpful, but it's not everything. Life skills learned in those years is everything. It teaches you to communicate, socialize, stay curious, confident, resilient, and whip up creative ramen😉😋

This is an incredibly important study and I wish that advisors at the high school and college level could spend more time helping young people understand what specific jobs entail; workload and earnings When I sit in Economics courses, I can easily imagine how the concepts can be applied in real business; marketing or UX or advertising. But students who have no real concept of the different areas of a business or what it takes to run a business, have no idea how all the parts click together They can’t feel the excitement or see a future of engagement and possibilities. It took me a lifetime of working in the business sector to even be able to connect those dots, how can a senior in high school be expected to make a life-long commitment to a field of study?

🎓 I graduated with a BA in Elementary Education (from a private university, with $50K+ of student loan debt) that I never used. However, within three years of graduation, I was fortunate enough to be offered an entry-level job in the industry that became the foundation for my 25+ year career. It is very sad those kinds of opportunities no longer seem to exist. 🚂 As the parent of a college junior who will graduate with a bachelor's degree in liberal arts, I am well aware that his future career prospects in today's economic environment are concerning. Having a degree (even from a brand-name university) will never be enough for him to live on. 💵 However, this is nothing new; the writing has been on the wall for quite some time. That is why we have always spoken with him about the possibility of becoming an apprentice in a trade that is related to his chosen profession, as an alternative to grad school. IMO, trades-based jobs are ridiculously undervalued as viable career options in today's degree-obsessed world. 💸 And let's stop penalizing people for taking entry-level jobs in food service, retail, etc., and pigeonhole them for life. The same goes for older, more established members of the workforce who suddenly find themselves unemployed and are just trying to make ends meet. (That included yours truly not too long ago, hence the donut next to my name) Isn't it better to try to do something to be a productive member of society, than sit around doing nothing?

There's a bigger problem and that is that the big U degree ain't what it used to be. First fix HS so it actually prepares kids from something other than activists and fear based motivation Second, unless you need law or med school, students should be encouraged to seek a trade. Don't go get big Computer degree but rather go to coding school start working. Don't go into engineering - study plumbing, electrical or go work building homes n roads first. Then use your employer to pay for more school. The problem is universities offering degrees nobody is asking for.

Insights from The Wall Street Journal 💡 1. The major that someone picks in college really matters. 🎲 2: Some STEM and business degrees don't pay off the way others do. 📉 3: Internships make a significant difference. 💪 If we were really ambitious, we'd look at these insights and we'd redesign the college experience from top to bottom. Through inquiry of many different stakeholders, we'd determine what skills would be needed for humanity's biggest challenges, and we'd build an academic institution that developed those skills. Students would follow an academic path that developed many (Greek: poly-) different kinds of knowledge (Greek: -math). And they'd work as apprentices concurrent to their academic studies with employer partners who see the problem solving value in modern-day polymaths. If we were really wanted to shoot for the moon, we'd put learning outcomes and student experience as our topmost priority, and we'd hire elite faculty that wanted to teach, coach, and mentor their students more than they want to publish and build the university's brand. Higher education is in crisis and the industry, outside of a small handful of anomalies, isn't adapting to new realities. So we're building it better. Follow this page to watch this grow. Thanks to Lindsay Ellis, Vanessa Fuhrmans, Strada Education Foundation and The Burning Glass Institute for this work. #polymath #highereducation #leadership #futureofwork #studentsuccess #talentdevelopment #apprenticeships

MUST-READ article. Also important to add that the majority of employed people are deeply unhappy at work. In addition to compensation, a major root cause of that unhappiness is that they’re not using their unique talents in their work tasks. It was eye-opening to get Gallup Strengths coaching back in my late 20s. Completely changed how I approached work and how I “job crafted” my day-to-day activities. Loved it so much that I got certified in it. The method helps people better understand how they’re uniquely talented so they can choose better fit roles. The problem isn’t just that people are in jobs that aren’t requiring the use of their college degrees; the bigger problem is most of the population is actively disengaged (or worse, miserable) at work.

Lindsay Ellis w/ the insights & Strada Education Foundation + The Burning Glass Institute w/ the breadth of data to help inform better education & workforce development policy and better employer/hiring practices. My views are colored by the following: 1. Since 2015, I’ve trained 2000+ technologists from institutions like The Knowledge House, Harlem Business Alliance, & TheDream.US. That’s a mix of education attainment (many never finished college), and work status (some are undocumented so have to be contractors & business owners) 2. At 24, I finished PhD coursework at John Jay College (CUNY) / The Graduate Center, City University of New York and earned a Masters along the way- all debt free, all as an undocumented student. With that in mind, here’s a few ideas to help improve this: 1. “Welcome to the University of [INSERT SCHOOL NAME], sponsored by [INSERT COMPANY NAME]”. Let’s not pretend anymore. Corporations are the most powerful institutions in the US. Companies contribute time, talent & treasure to schools.. Schools save on resources and get better/high profile graduate outcomes. 2. Choice feels good, but too many options clouds judgement - so limit majors offered and consolidate departments and disciplines based on faculty talent + student interest + corporate partner alignment. 3. The tip-earning minimum wage on the federal level is $7.25/hr. In some states, it’s lower. Some don’t have a minimum. That’s all cruel. So increase minimums for all of it. 4. For profit schools - treat them as separate and unequal to research & non profit universities. On average, they have worse graduation & job outcomes and contribute disproportionately to student debt. Have them on a separate college scorecard. Invite them on separate college fair days. 5. End 6 month apprenticeships & 3 month internships. Only long term opportunities: 12-24 month apprenticeships, 6-12 month internships that earn college credits. By the way, internships shouldn’t just be for people in college. How about including folks who didn’t finish college? Most people don’t finish college because they’re not smart or skilled. Often times it’s because of external circumstances that could be helped by…. paid employment opportunities. All simple., but not easy. #jobs #careers #education #workforcedevelopment #apprenticeship #internship

This data isn't surprising, but it is disappointing. As an Economics major with no specific career path laid out before me, I fell into an HR Admin job, worked my way up to Recruiter, then HR Generalist before discovering the HR Outsourcing industry. I didn't plan to go into #humanresources, but we found each other and it excited me in a way that say, Accounting, never would. (By the way, there was no HR degree program when I graduated.) While this data won't help folks who have already racked up student loan debt and are underemployed, it does provide support for #careerexploration and #careercoaching in Middle and High School to help our youth start thinking about and planning for their future careers. It does further support educating #workers at Technical Schools who teach job skills that translate into an actual job. And it further supports those who question whether #standardizedtesting and expensive #collegedegrees are building the #futureworkforce America and #smallbusiness needs.