Majority of college students lack education-to-career guidance

A February study from ed-tech provider Anthology found over half of college students enroll in higher education to achieve higher earning potential, and large shares of students said they have career-focused goals with their enrollment, including accessing better job benefits or exploring career opportunities. However, not every graduate reaches such goals.

Previous research from Strada Institute for the Future of Work and the Burning Glass Institute found more than half of college graduates are underemployed a year after graduation, or working a job that doesn’t typically require a bachelor’s degree. This trend continues after a decade, with 45 percent of students who don’t pursue additional education being underemployed.

A new report from Strada offers a solution for bridging this gap between education and employment: providing students career advising.

“Connecting learning to students’ career development at each step in their education-to-career path strengthens students’ ability to make informed choices, follow through on their plans, and achieve their goals,” according to the report.

What’s the need: Despite many students considering careers an important outcome of higher education, identifying what career or educational path they’ll take after graduation is confusing and nerve-racking. A May 2024 Student Voice survey by Inside Higher Ed and Generation Lab found 68 percent of college students are at least “somewhat” stressed as they think about and prepare for life after college.

This uncertainty extends to students who haven’t chosen their next steps after high school, as well. A June 2023 survey from ECMC Group found, while 65 percent of Gen Z teens believe education after high school is necessary, only 13 percent feel prepared to make a decision about their future.

What’s the sitch: Quality career coaching, as defined by Strada, involves:

• Guidance, or personalized coaching to help students select the education and training experiences that they need to pursue a successful career.
• Timely information, which means before entering or during their first year, students are learning about what career paths may be a good fit, job opportunities the program could lead to, potential earnings in different careers and career outcomes of students from the same institution.
• Support in setting education and career goals and developing a plan to meet them, as well as potential barriers to success.

Strada’s report finds, when students did receive career coaching, they were more likely to work a job that required a college degree (69 percent) as well as think highly of their education’s impact on their well-being (87 percent) and assistance in reaching goals (73 percent).

But only one in five college students at public universities say they’ve received high-quality education-to-career coaching, with those in some majors—accounting (29 percent), education (28 percent) and nursing (25 percent)—more likely to have experienced coaching than others. Students who majored in liberal arts and social sciences (16 percent) or psychology (15 percent), on the other hand, were less likely to report having coaching experiences.

Information gaps: Of the three elements of career coaching, students were more likely to receive support (67 percent) and guidance (53 percent) than timely information (38 percent).

When students did receive timely information, it was most often related to their strengths and interests and how that connects to career paths (60 percent), job opportunities that a program could lead to (50 percent) or potential earnings in different careers related to your program (49 percent). Only one-third of students learned of career outcomes of other students from the institution.

Sources of this information varied, with more students learning from instructors in a course or other staff members at the university compared to personalized coaching or advising, highlighting the role of faculty members in preparing students for careers.

One significant source of career path guidance for college students is family and friends, with one-quarter of learners learning from them. The data did reveal equity gaps among historically minoritized student groups who may not have the same connection with professionals. First-generation students were less likely to receive information from family and friends in general, with survey data demonstrating six to 10 percentage point gaps between them and continuing-generation students. Nonbinary students, similarly, were less likely to receive information from friends and family.

So what? Based on this data, Strada’s report offers five recommendations for colleges and universities to implement.

• Provide incoming students with timely information. This could be incorporated into orientation, initial advising sessions, first-year experiences and traditional communication strategies to help students explore interests and align them with career pathways.
• Reach students where they are. Embedding guidance into core curriculum reaches students who may face obstacles to the career center and ensures, regardless of academic program, students receive support. Campus leaders can consider how technology should be incorporated in meeting this goal.
• Build multiple touch points. During their educational journey, students will understand and make use of different elements of coaching, so implementing repetition into delivery can ensure students benefit from this work.
• Equip practitioners with data. Students lack critical pieces of information that can inform their career decisions, including potential earnings and past career outcomes of students within the program. Career center professionals and faculty members should gather and distribute this data early.
• Empower all campus community members to talk about careers. Staff, faculty, peers, alumni and employers can all be a valuable resource in giving students guidance and information, so college leaders should give them tools and preparation to fill these gaps.

Do you have a career prep tip that might help others encourage student success? Tell us about it.