Employers say college graduates are unprepared for their careers, according to a study published by the Chronicle of Higher Education earlier this month.
Brown’s curriculum and liberal learning equip students with broader skills that may not translate directly to a specific job, said Andrew Simmons, director of the Center for Careers and Life After Brown.
Over half of surveyed employers in the study said they found it difficult to find recent graduates who were qualified for the positions they sought.
Some companies, like the Boeing Company, now rank colleges based on how well their alums perform at their jobs.
“Liberal arts colleges like Brown teach students in a very generalized way,” Simmons said. “And it’s a period where employers are less willing to spend resources they have to train employees.”
There is a constant conflict between holistic colleges, like Brown, and employers who want new hires to know the job “on day one,” Simmons said.
“Anything the University spends today on (vocational) training could be outmoded in a few years,” he added.
Brown alums are often valuable because of critical thinking and communication skills, which are not career-specific, wrote Daniel Leppo, a recruiter for Bloomingdale’s, in an email to The Herald.
“We still need our recruits to have the raw tools and desire to move ahead, but once they are here, it is our entire corporation’s responsibility to make sure their education never stops,” Leppo wrote.
Simmons said the focus of the University’s liberal learning philosophy is usually very transferable to the workplace, particularly in writing and analysis.
According to the study, employers find recent college graduates in the United States particularly lacking in communication and analytical skills.
“In general, today’s students are always plugged-in, so face-to-face, nonverbal and verbal communication skills are not as practiced,” wrote Amy Collins, a recruiter for the cultural exchange advocator Education First, in an email to The Herald.
Collins wrote, “I’ve noticed that students at Brown who partake in classes that focus on presentation skills, public speaking forums and team-building dynamics have an advantage over those that don’t.”
Samantha Wong ’12, a research consultant for National Economic Research Associates Economic Consulting, said though her liberal education did not specifically help with some of the more technical aspects of her job, it made her a better communicator.
“Once you’re on the job, you pick things up pretty quickly,” she added.
William Herrmann ’12, a business operations analyst at BuzzFeed, said he felt prepared to do what he was asked at his job, though “the whole thing requires a lot of perspective.”
Herrmann said he believed coming from Brown as opposed to a more preparation-oriented school made transitioning to the workplace more difficult.
But Katherine Aimei Kutt ’13 said she feels prepared for her job as a technical director at Pixar Animation Studios. Kutt said the Open Curriculum allowed her to choose more specific classes within her computer science and physics concentrations.
“You can’t really do that at other schools with a big core,” she said.
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