Today’s students are entering higher education with a fair question: Will my degree lead to a career I care about and can sustain?
Amid rising tuition costs, a competitive job market and a cultural current scrutinizing the return on investment that college provides, students are looking for more than academic credentials. They want assurance that their college experience will directly prepare them for the workforce.
I think this is a major force driving increased enrollment in nontraditional, vocationally focused programs.
Nonetheless, there’s a stubborn disconnect between what higher ed institutions offer and what students experience. Consider this: While 78% of new graduates believe they’re proficient in communication skills, only 53% of employers agree.
We might be tempted to dismiss this gap as an artifact of perception, or maybe a generational misunderstanding, but it’s not. It points to a problem in the way we’re preparing students.
Higher education must confront the uncomfortable truth that some curricula fail to reflect the pace and priorities of the real world. There is a reason that one in four employers are eliminating degree requirements for open positions. We have to respond with employment-driven education.
Curriculum is the student experience
Most colleges and universities genuinely want to equip students for career success. But when it comes to curriculum, which is the part of the academic experience that should be most closely linked to students’ goals and futures, the education system often defaults to suboptimal models:
- Employer feedback is missing. Institutions typically evaluate courses based on faculty input and student surveys, with little visibility into how the curriculum lands with employers.
- Curriculum updates are procedural, not strategic. Many schools revise courses in bulk during three-to-five-year review cycles. It’s an enormous lift, often focused on compliance rather than quality.
- Industry voices are left out. Colleges may claim to offer career-focused education, but few involve external experts when designing programs. This leads to skill mismatches, hiring challenges, and even local shortages of qualified workers.
- Theoretical learning overshadows real experience. Even well-intended courses may lack hands-on opportunities that reflect real job tasks, leaving students with knowledge they can’t apply and employers with roles they can’t fill.
All at once, this disconnect frustrates students, undercuts institutions’ value propositions, and challenges their ability to meet evolving economic needs. We can do better.
Better curriculum starts with the right partners
The solution, as overworked instructional design teams will be glad to hear, isn’t more courses. It’s better aligned ones.
Career readiness must be designed into the academic experience, rather than expected to happen on its own. Here are key ways institutions can make improvements:
1. Bring industry in early and often.
Bring in industry partners not just at the advisory board level but throughout curriculum design and review. Their insights can identify missing skills and shape more relevant learning experiences.
This collaboration can take various forms, such as conducting industry surveys, co-developing course content, or providing real-world case studies and projects to students. By emphasizing the practical over the theoretical, institutions can give students seamless transitions into their future careers.
2. Use data to focus change where it matters most.
High-enrollment and high-DFW (Drop, Fail, Withdraw) courses often have the greatest impact on student success and retention. Prioritizing improvements here can deliver outsized results.
Often, as a substitute for comprehensive curriculum shifts, schools focus on advising, triggered emails, and wraparound services. We hope to catch students after they stumble. But no advisor, no matter how skilled, can coach a student through a poorly designed course. We have mountains of data and testimonials from both students and advisors to support this. Now we just need to act on that information.
3. Leverage alumni insights.
Graduates who have navigated the transition from classroom to career can offer invaluable mentorship, relevant case studies, and perspectives of underexplored career pathways.
4. Collaborate, don’t duplicate.
Schools can work together to co-develop stackable, industry-aligned certificates, accelerating innovation while reducing redundant work.
With the right approach and partners, institutions can quickly assess and evolve curriculum to better match workforce needs to the demands of the market. I would argue institutions should be updating courses more often than the standard three to five years in any case, and making these sorts of adjustments can not only increase students’ access to relevant education but also help speed up course review cycles.
Next career-ready move belongs to higher ed
Today’s students are clear-eyed about their futures. Colleges and universities must start recognizing curriculum as the engine of real-world student outcomes.
My current work is entirely centered on helping institutions harness good instructional design, workforce expertise and actionable strategies that align with today’s job market—because it’s crucial that they do so.
In the end, students’ success belongs to and benefits all of us.
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