Career readiness and employability are essential aspects of the life of a student today. A lot of modifications have been done in education fields by the experts to ensure the knowledge and skills acquired in learning institutions can be applied effectively by every student in their future career. Significantly, the main aim of education to high school students is to equip them with knowledge, skills, and competencies, making them ready to work and fulfill their working desires. A student pursues a career of their choice, which they believe that after completing, they would be fully equipped with competencies to start and remain employed. In most cases, most students are guided by their parents or teachers on the career that fits them and their favorite subjects. Guidance is crucial since it helps the learners focus on their career, acquire the best knowledge and skills, and finally become ready to work, which is the major target after completing the career. This paper analyzes the career readiness and employability of today's students and major issues, positive and negative issues that affect the administration of students' careers due to the management of higher education in general.
After the education process, every student is ready to work. Being ready to enter the job market means that the graduate has the skills and knowledge necessary to be successful in job training and has the education competencies required for their career of choice. Post-secondary education can include technical or vocational programs, om-the job training, or apprenticeships. On the other hand, employability means that one is capable of gaining the initial employment, maintain it, or obtain a new one if needed (Perera et al., 2018). Precisely, employability is being capable of gaining and maintain fulfilling work. In career readiness and employability, an individual has a set of knowledge, understanding, and personal attributes. Core academic competencies needed include literacy, numeracy, critical thinking, and writing, which are applied in the workplace. Besides, personal and social capabilities include interpersonal skills and personal quantities such as trustworthiness, hardworking, ethics, critical thinker, and decision-maker. Career Transitional skills such as networking and interviewing prepare learners to progress to and within their careers. Career readiness and employability need the mastery of competencies, which entails mastering specialized skills that are often needed to complete the roles and responsibilities of a certain job (Perera et al., 2018). This mastery and competence are often measured using industry-recognized credentials. Most important, every student is responsible for career development and management.
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Student affairs in higher education involve qualified personnel dedicated to offering support to academics and individuals pursuing different careers. Student affairs can also be referred to as student success, services, or personnel. The individuals who work in this education sector have a primary role in helping the students with a wide range of aspects related to their careers and pursuit of post-secondary education. Precisely, student affairs administrators are responsible for various career functions, internal-and external co-curricular activities. These professionals have the mandate to oversee the development of an implementation of programs, policies, and services related to the perusing of careers. However, there are various challenges that hinder the administrator from offering effective services to student affairs, specifically in career development.
The first challenge is declining student enrolment. For the eight consecutive years, the overall enrolment of colleges and universities in America has declined by more than two percent or approximately more than three thousand students in 2019. Although this situation varies by institution, all tertiary levels experience a significant decline in student enrolment in every previous year. As a result, the institution management is embracing themselves for the unavoidable financial effects that will lead to a decrease from low and low tuition dollars. Education finances are crucial to the development of various careers. In most cases, experts are sources outside the institution to provide the best methods of career development who need to be paid to perform. Besides, most of the student affairs professionals for career development concentrated on identifying innovative strategies to increase revenue and reduce costs. When the plans are not enough, the institution's leadership often approaches the student affairs budgets, department snap positions to be cut. Financial aspects motivate career providers to work effectively. Also, effective learning materials for the provided careers need enough capital for the institution to purchase and maintain them. According to Eide (2018), any learning institution that runs bankrupt is regarded below the policies of the education since most of the activities are performed under the expected, thus poor career services by the trainers. Therefore, this becomes a great challenge where most of the career objectives are not met.
White supremacy is another challenge to the development of careers in learning institutions. In 2018, a pile of cases of white supremacist materials was developed at college institutions in the United States. White supremacy in career development and employability entails the perception that white people are superior to other races and thus should dominate them. Besides, career educators have recognized various ways in which career supremacy defines professionalism in the workplace. It means how students work, interact through communication, and how they network while performing their duties. Within career development, there have been long-standing biases that are identified from the responses to feedback from the employers who claim that students need more “polishing” (Heinecke & Beach, 2020). Additionally, white supremacy has led to increasing concerns on the safety and welfare of marginalized students such as black students and undocumented immigrants with career readiness and employability. You find that most of these individuals are segregated in the workplace, which demotivates other similar students who think of pursuing such careers in the future. As a result of these challenges, affairs professionals have stood up to defend these populations from the harsh treatments and injustices on their careers and employability posed by white supremacy. Career professionals of all students across the country struggle to balance university and organization free speech policies with growing concerns.
Young people's mental health is the third challenge that affects the administration of student affairs on career readiness and employability. Deliberate diagnoses on students' mental health, specifically anxiety and depression, are on the rise. Between the years 2007-2017, the treatment of various mental problems of the students has risen to more than 30% in 2019 (Steinas, 2020). This state has affected most of the student's career performances and also in the workplace. As institution and organizations' counseling sectors struggle to control the fast-growing caseload, many affair administrators often volunteer to support students through mental health issues. However, while some education courses cover counseling and developmental skills, some student affairs administrators often lack training skills and effective preparations to mitigate the increased mental health concerns experienced mostly in the workplace. A student with stable mental health can apply his career readiness and employability in the workplace to bring changes and increase productivity.
Fourth, unsustainable staff turnover rates impact the administration of the student's affairs, thus affecting the student's career readiness and employability. More than sixty percent of the student affairs professionals resign within their first five working years (Mullen et al., 2018). The most relevant causes for these behaviors among the practitioner are poor management of higher education institutions. Mismanagement leads to stressful conditions that limit them from delivering quality career development to the students. Also, lack of consistency and thorough supervision is common, which demotivates them from putting more effort into meeting the career objectives of the students. The rise of new attractive careers also poses a challenge to the administrator since the high education system has failed to come up with outstanding careers. In this case, you find that most of the students are shifting to other courses to meet their career goals. Additionally, inadequate career development priorities lead to stuff turnovers. In most institutions, the administrator remains stagnated at the initial positions, which discourages them from delivering their duties. As a result, student affairs management is at risk. Therefore, various strategies need to be put in place to meet the high expectations of the student affairs professionals to reduce stress, anxiety, and burnout, which will promote career performance.
Despite the negative issues affecting administrations of the students' affairs on career readiness and employability, various positive major factors strengthen the administration of the student's affairs and management of higher education on career readiness and employability. The first factor is modern technology. Recently, higher education management has adopted the digital world environment to deliver quality skills and competencies to the students. Significantly, the student affairs administrators are well applying modern technology strategies in career teaching to the students. The digital age demands good technology and computer skills, despite the career field that student is in (Perera et al., 2018). Computer literacy assists the administrators and students to collaborate to solve problems and make decisions effectively to bring the best career readiness and employability competencies. Additionally, in most organizations, employers are most concerned about students' technology skills, which provide useful perceptions of various technical insights and innovations that enable students to apply their careers and personal lives. Therefore, modern technology has played a major role in the effective administration of student affairs and higher education management.
The government on the support of career development has positively impacted the administration of student affairs in the country. Monetary government assistance to higher education includes the allocation of funds to all institutions and donations and contributions received by the institutions. Recently, more than sixty percent of colleges and universities have received a huge amount of finances to support their activities in developing careers for the students (Hernandez-Gantes, 2018). Student affairs administrations can work maximally since there are available resources to equip the student with needed skills and competencies. These students can meet career readiness and employability effectively.
In summary, career readiness and employability entail student ability and skills to get employed and maintain it at higher performances. However, various positive and negative factors impact the administration of student affairs and high education management, specifically on career development. White supremacy, student under-enrollment, increased mental health problems, and unsustainable staff-turnovers are the major negative factors. However, new technology and government support are applied by the student affairs administrators and high education administration. This is to enhance effective career competencies for the students until they reach career readiness and employability.
References
Eide, S. (2018). Private colleges in peril: Financial pressures and declining enrollment may lead to more closures. Education Next , 18 (4), 34-42.
Heinecke, W. F., & Beach, S. (2020). Social Justice Interventions in Higher Education: Predominantly White Institutions’ Culture of White Supremacy, Racism, and Neoliberalism. Handbook of Social Justice Interventions in Education , 1-25.
Hernandez-Gantes, V. M., Keighobadi, S., & Fletcher Jr, E. C. (2018). Building community bonds, bridges, and linkages to promote the career readiness of high school students in the United States. Journal of Education and Work , 31 (2), 190-203.
Mullen, P. R., Malone, A., Denney, A., & Santa Dietz, S. (2018). Job stress, burnout, job satisfaction, and turnover intention among student affairs professionals. College Student Affairs Journal , 36 (1), 94-108.
Perera, M. M. A., Fernandes, M. T., & Paniker, M. P. (2018). Career readiness: A survey on effectiveness of learning employability skills at university level. International Journal of Engineering Technologies and Management Research , 5 (11), 86-106.
Steinas, J. E. (2020). Preparing Student Affairs Administrators to Support College Students of Color with Mental Health Needs (Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California).
