Do Students Have The Skills Needed For The Workplace?

There Is No Skills-Gap: It Is Employers Who Have Not Kept Up with the Improved Skills of Graduates

One of the frequent criticisms levelled at universities in both the US and UK is that they do not provide students with the skills they need in the workplace. Skills are in abundance, and the true gap is the underutilisation of talent

Steven C. Ward | December 1, 2015

Often borrowing from human capital theory, first elaborated by the late Chicago School economist Gary Becker in the 1960s, critics argue that high aggregate unemployment rates, particularly of recent college graduates, are due to the lack of proper skills that translate into well-paying jobs. Good jobs exist, so the argument goes, there are just not enough people with the appropriate skills to fill them.
If universities could be “retooled” like an old factory or “disrupted” like a complacent industry in order to make them more responsive to evolving market needs, then the current mismatch of skills could be overcome and the economy could buzz along like before the 2008 downturn. 

September 1, 2011. Source: http://cdn.thewire.com/img/upload/2011/09/01/Picture%202__thumb.png

<more at http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/what-if-we-turned-the-skills-gap-debate-around/; related links: http://chronicle.com/article/College-Students-Think/151289/ (College Students Think They’re Ready for the Work Force. Employers Aren’t So Sure. January 20, 2015) and https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/01/20/study-finds-big-gaps-between-student-and-employer-perceptions (Well-Prepared in Their Own Eyes. Survey finds that college students think they are being well-prepared with the skills and qualities needed for careers. Employers are dubious. January 20, 2015)>