1. www.aacu.org/leap; @debrahumphreys
Higher Education & Workforce Development: Friend or Foe SHEEO Higher Education Policy Conference August 2016
Debra Humphreys, Senior Vice President for Academic Planning and Public Engagement, AAC&U

2. The Big Economic Picture
“Human work will increasingly shift toward two kinds of tasks: solving problems for which standard operating procedures do not currently exist, and working with new information—acquiring it, making sense of it, communicating it to others….today, work that consists of following clearly specified directions is increasingly being carried out by computers and workers in lower-wage countries. The remaining jobs that pay enough to support families require a deeper level of knowledge and the skills to apply it.”
“Frank Levy and Richard Murnane, “Dancing with Robots” (2013)

3. Dancing With Robots (2013)

4. What do Employers Say?
Falling Short? College Learning and Career Success
(Hart Research Associate 2015)
AAC&U has commissioned a series of studies—focus groups/surveys of students and business leaders, see:

5. Three in five employers believe that it takes BOTH specific knowledge/skills and broad knowledge/skills to achieve long-term career success.
Which is more important for recent college graduates to have who want to pursue advancement and long-term career success at your company?
(employers)
Range of knowledge and skills that apply to a range of fields or positions
Knowledge and skills that apply to a specific field or position
Q.4 employers (11369b), Q.8a students (11369c)
College students:
Specific 15%
Both 63%
Broad range 22%
Both field-specific and broad range of knowledge and skills

6. Learning Outcomes that at Least Four in Five Employers Rate as Very Important
Proportions of employers rating each skill/knowledge area as very important for recent college graduates to have*
Students: very important for success in workplace*
78%
77%
75%
74%
79%
Oral communication
Working effectively with others in teams
Written communication
Ethical judgment and decision-making
Critical/analytical thinking
Applying knowledge/ skills to real world
Q.6 employers, Q.12 students
Unedited
*8, 9, 10 ratings on zero-to-10 scale, 10 = very important

7. College Learning for the New Global Century: A Unified, Both/And Outcomes-Based Vision
“In a society as diverse as the US, there can be no ‘one-size-fits-all’ design for learning that serves all students and all areas of study….Yet all educational institutions and all fields of study also share in a common obligation to prepare graduates as fully as possible for the real-world demands of work, citizenship, and life in a complex and fast-changing society….” “[We must] create new crosswalks and communal spaces that support educational collaboration across the traditional academic dividing lines between the liberal arts and sciences and the professional fields.” College Learning for the New Global Century (2007)

8. The Equity Imperative for Inclusive Excellence
“ A liberal and life-enhancing college education is especially important to low-income students, who too often are steered in exactly the opposite direction….[we must] make the most empowering forms of learning expected for all college students, not just for the most fortunate among them.” “Bringing Quality and Equity Together” (AAC&U 2016)

9. Implications for State Systems and Policies
Need to track students’ pathways based on their majors, but also their specific educational experiences; Both long and short-term
We need more data on broad outcomes required in different careers/jobs and correlation between achievement levels and success post-graduation;
Policies must account for fact that about 40% of college educated workers work in jobs unrelated to undergraduate majors;
Labor market trend projections aren’t always reliable; be careful about “new program development” based on short-term trends;
Salary data isn’t everything—states need to understand how well higher education is advancing success in socially valued professions that may be less well paid.

10. Salary Isn’t Everything: KCTCS Social Utility Index Measures Non-Wage Returns to Graduates and Regions
“KCTS’s existing metrics focused on high-wage and high-demand occupations, but did not identify occupations that provided value to the community not reflected in occupational wages. In the absence of a definitive list of ‘meaningful’ occupations, KCTCS developed five indicators as components of the index.”
Identified low-wage, but high social utility occupations:
firefighters; medical records technicians; cardiovascular technicians; childcare workers; EMTs; home health aides
Source: Whitfield, C., et. al. “A Social Utility Index: Developing a Method to Measure Noneconomic Occupational Returns for College Graduates,” Change (March/April 2016).

11. Implications for Institutions and Systems
Curricular redesign must focus on learning outcomes as much as mix of majors;
Need more and better data on student learning outcomes—especially those outcomes most important for long-term career success;
More internships/experiential learning especially for liberal arts majors (see Burning Glass reports);
More big-picture thinking/broad learning in CTE and professional majors;
Gen Ed not just foundational; not just about knowledge areas
All deserve education for responsible and active citizen engagement