More Partnerships Between Colleges and Industry

via The Chronicle – More Partnerships Between Colleges and Industry Could Produce a Better-Prepared Work Force Despite years of talk, the higher-education and industry sectors of the United States still don’t collaborate enough to ensure that students are adequately prepared for jobs. And the mismatch between what employers expect and what students learn in college or vocational schools could have dire consequences for the nation’s economy, according to several speakers at the New Work Era Summit hosted here by The Atlantic.

To achieve what is considered full employment—a 5-percent unemployment rate—in 2020, the economy would have to add 21 million jobs. Participants in the summit, which included college and business executives, said that employers increasingly report that they have trouble filling some positions because they cannot find qualified applicants.

The event on Tuesday coincided with the release of a report called “An Economy That Works: Job Creation and America’s Future” by McKinsey and Company, a consulting firm. The report found that the U.S. labor force will grow steadily, reaching 170 million by 2020, but that “too few students will obtain college degrees, too many will have no more than a high-school diploma, and the number of Americans without even a high-school diploma will rise.” [Continue Reading at The Chronicle]