The Economist ran an interesting article last week entitled Angst for the Educated with the subtitle that ‘a university degree no longer offers financial security’. It is an important, timely and challenging commentary. As we know, there is a high correlation between educational qualifications and earnings – an American with a professional degree can expect to earn $3.6 million in a lifetime compared with a high school graduate who can expect to earn $1.3 million. It is this promise of greater returns that keeps many students sane during the apparently endless routine of projects and examinations!
But with everything else in the world of work and business changing rapidly, what if this relationship was to loosen significantly in the future? Well it would already appear that this is already happening. And the main reason is competition. The article reports research which estimates that the number of students going to university grew by 74% in Europe between 1990 and 2007, but the increases were by 144% in Latin America and 203% in Asia. Graduate competition for the best jobs is growing in a marketplace that is global. Add to this the fact that technology is removing the needs for some white collar workers in the same way that it has already done to blue collar jobs – for example, software packages do you tax returns at a fraction of the cost of an accountant, and the challenge becomes even more serious.
The other main point of the piece is that technology will cause the main elements of brain work to be broken down into smaller pieces – the routine bits being completed by machines or outsourced to where labour is cheaper. So Western graduates will need to recognise that the qualification will only get you so far. What core skills and abilities can you combine to give you an advantage in a competitive jobs marketplace? How are you different and better than your peers? What are you doing to develop a marketing plan for yourself? These are the kinds of questions that you will increasingly need to be able to answer.