Background
- Major disruptive shifts in the U.S. economy will significantly reshape the workforce skills that will be required in the next decade, according to a March 2011 study sponsored by Apollo Research Institute and conducted by the nonprofit research group, Institute for the Future.
- College students and employers, exhausted from a persistent economic crisis, may be less likely to explore the workforce skills needed for the next decade.
Method
- Survey of over 2,500 degree-seeking students and employers across industries.
Purpose
- To measure perceptions of degree-seeking students and employers about the changing nature of work and the requirements for future jobs.
Results
- Results indicate students’ and employers’ misperceptions and lack of action may lead them down the wrong road—leaving U.S. organizations at a competitive disadvantage.
- Despite predictions of how social forces will disrupt careers and business, 75% of students and 65% of employers believe the skills relevant to their future employment or competitive success, respectively, will not change.
- Failure to recognize how workforce skill requirements will change in the next decade may impact workers, higher education, and industry:
- College students may enroll in the wrong degree programs and skill development opportunities and find themselves ill-prepared to secure and retain good jobs.
- Employers may offer outdated workforce-development advice to educational institutions, which would compromise these institutions’ ability to properly prepare future workers for careers.
- U.S. businesses risk hiring and developing workers with the wrong skill sets, leaving them unable to perform critical work, provide needed products and services, and sustain organizational and national competitiveness.
Download a PDF copy of Asleep at the Wheel: Are College Students and Employers Ready for the Jobs of the Future?
Topic: Workforce Preparedness
