What Employers Want You to Learn in College

Everyone is concerned with a major.  One of the biggest concerns that most parents and other personal coaches have is they want you to pick a major in which you will make the most money.  Your major is important, but it is the skills your major will provide you that makes the difference.

This article in US News Today lists three types of skills your employer will want you to demonstrate you learned from college:

1.  Work well with others.

This is a skill you will learn at UTB.  In UNIV and in your other courses you will work in groups.  When you do, get reference letters from your group members about how you work with them.  Add these to your portfolio and pictures and videos of your projects.

2.  Know your data

As you research papers and information, remember your future boss will not care who discovered the U.S. but will care if you can research the impact of pink widgets on the market.  Invest or not invest?  Then the boss will ask you to write an executive summary of your findings.

3.  Be responsible for yourself

Your boss will not want to take attendance every day.  Your boss will call or email you to a meeting and expect you to be there, on time and with your reports.  Every time you have a deadline come up, think about how you can meet the deadline.  You know you can hand in work early.

No matter what major you choose, these are skills that you will have.  Pick a major by your interests and passion.  Only then will you make money.

Tablets and College Students

Pearson Foundation did a survey to learn if college students are owning tablet computers.  In  2011, 7% of college students and college bound high school seniors had tablets.  In 2012,  25% of college students  and college bound high school seniors had tablet computers.  That is a very large jump.

When we look at what students will need to know and what skills students will need to have to be competitive in the job market, we see that mobile technology will be king.

What if we were to provide a tablet to each student at UTB?  Would that make a difference in your success?

The freer college is the poorer students do!

A survey just came out that showed the more parents pay the expenses of college for a student the lower their grades are!

An interesting question is does that apply for students who are on Pell grants and student loans also?    Even though the loans will have to be paid back, they seem like free money at the time.  The reality hits later when the $300 - $500 bill arrives each month when you leave college.

There are many factors that affect the success of students.  For faculty this report made us stop and think.  We don't have many students at UTB who are lucky enough to have parents foot the entire bill of college.  Over 70% of UTB students have Pell grants and loans.  It is not quite the same as a having a parent foot the entire bill, but college is paid for.

Do you feel that having Pell and easy to get loans makes students take college less seriously like what is happening to students who have college paid for by family?