School/Work Connection– Now Being Tested

A provocative article at Fast Company opens with a scathing condemnation of how schools prepare students for work stating that “many college graduates are devoid of practical skills.” This reminds me of the FedEx commercial from a few years ago.

So to determine if a degree is practical (helping someone succeed on-the-job), Great Britain may begin to publish how economically successful a school’s students are after graduation and administer a test to determine whether university graduates have any workplace communication skills.

Here in the states, colleges are beginning to adopt real world evaluation measures of college graduates. As the article states:

…a measure which is begrudgingly being adopted by more and more universities, poses a series of tasks to students, such as writing a convincing report to one’s boss. In this task, students read emails, reports, and newspaper articles in order to support or oppose the purchase of a fictional technology company.

To many, this is radical stuff. To me, its a great idea and something we’ve been doing at Bloomsburg University’s instructional technology program for decades.

See my article Why A ID Degree from Bloomsburg Rocks!

So, yes, let’s test the school/work connection and make sure that students graduating with degrees are able to get jobs that are high paying and challenging. We conduct a very similar exercise where students are given a mock RFP, they have to write a 40 page proposal, develop a working prototype and then present to 30 corporate e-learning professionals. It is a great assessment of student communication, teamwork and content knowledge skills. It positions the students for success.

PS. Here is another funny logistics commercial that I just had to post. But if we think of it on a deeper level, these guys are having fun on the job but are able to keep on top of what they have to do…Or, don’t think about it, just watch and enjoy.