Skills are the new currency of the labor market, and higher education needs to get better at explaining to employers and students how academic programs help fill the skills gap.
Bob Dylan said it best: “The times, they are a-changin’.”
The days where a college degree was the pinnacle of education are over, as are the days where a career was commonly spent in the same field or organization from “hire to retire.” Today, education and career pathways are seldom linear. Instead, workers must transform themselves as lifelong learners who upskill and reskill to stay ahead of the curve. This agility is not only necessary for individual workers, but for the employers that hire them as well. In this changing landscape, skills have become the new currency of the workforce, and in order to serve students well, higher education needs to reinvent and refocus around this currency.[1]
The College Degree and Growing Skepticism
As the labor market shifts, employers are increasingly realizing that they are unable to hire skilled workers.