Across the world there are many countries where people with advanced degrees are struggling to find employment. I think this is because full-time employment is no longer the cornerstone of modern economies. Universities need to re-structure study options in order to keep abreast of this development.
People often declare that there is no work around anymore. In fact, there is
Plenty of work. Casual, on-call, contract, part-time and temporary positions have proliferated in recent years. What is much rarer now is permanent employment, meaning positions with a long-term contract, benefits, stability, internal promotion
And skills development organised by employers.
The problem is that the university education system was designed for an employment-centred economy. People would dedicate anything from five to seven years to diligent study in order to get a guaranteed career at the end of it. There is no guarantee anymore.
The solution is for university education to accommodate new working arrangements. Study options need to be broken down into shorter “booster” qualifications taken on an as-needed basis with more part-time, evening and distance options. A more realistic scenario now is for workers to balance two separate incomes
Streams while studying on the side – perhaps for the length of their working life-
Rather than studying full-time for six years and then working full-time until retirement.
The post-employment economy is only a problem for people who are not prepared for it. Unfortunately, many of these people are highly-qualified graduates who are the product of an antiquated education system. The revamping university study should resolve this issue.
Across the world there are
many
countries where
people
with advanced degrees are struggling to find employment. I
think
this is
because
full-time employment is no longer the cornerstone of modern economies.
Universities
need to re-structure
study
options in order to
keep
abreast of this development.
People
often
declare that there is no work around anymore. In fact, there
is
Plenty
of work. Casual, on-call, contract, part-time and temporary positions have proliferated in recent years. What is much rarer
now
is permanent employment, meaning positions with a long-term contract, benefits, stability, internal promotion
And
skills
development
organised
by employers.
The problem is that the
university
education system
was designed
for an
employment-centred
economy.
People
would dedicate anything from five to seven years to diligent
study
in order to
get
a guaranteed career at the
end
of it. There is no guarantee anymore.
The solution is for
university
education to accommodate new working arrangements.
Study
options need to
be broken
down into shorter “booster” qualifications taken on an as-needed basis with more part-time, evening and distance options. A more realistic scenario
now
is for workers to balance two separate incomes
Streams while studying on the side
–
perhaps for the length of their working life-
Rather
than studying full-time for six years and then working full-time until retirement.
The post-employment economy is
only
a problem for
people
who are not prepared for it. Unfortunately,
many
of these
people
are
highly
-qualified graduates who are the product of an antiquated education system. The revamping
university
study
should resolve this issue.