ENTERING THE 'EXIT ERA': What higher-education historians call the "Entrance Era"—recent decades defined by more students trying to get into the best colleges—might be on its way out. In its place, a recent report suggests we might soon find ourselves in what Brandon Busteed, executive director at Gallup Education, calls an "Exit Era," where the real goal will be landing a job after college.
The 2016 Gallup-Purdue Index, which focused on college career services, mentorship and internship opportunities, found 86 percent of incoming freshmen since 2010 said getting a good job was a critical factor in their decision to go to college, up 13 percent from 2000 to 2009. But only one in 10 U.S. business leaders believe a college education arms graduates with workforce skills, “demonstrating a need for colleges and universities to innovate in order to prepare graduates for life outside of college.”
Career services centers aren’t cutting it, according to the study. Just 52 percent of U.S. graduates reported that they visited career centers. Of that, only 16 percent reported that the services they received were very helpful. Still, those who visited the career center did not necessarily fare better in the end. For those who said they had a good job lined up after college, 31 percent said they visited their career center, compared to 34 percent of students who did not.
