Key points:
- The skills employers seek and those a democracy requires are largely the same
- How higher ed and lifelong learning can shape a future-proof workforce
- Future proof your career: Human-centered majors in the AI era
- For more on civic education, visit eCN’s Teaching & Learning hub
Public confidence in higher education sits at a new historic low, and colleges and universities are facing an identity crisis. On the one hand, a growing chorus of reformers argues that colleges should reorganize themselves entirely around preparing students for the labor market, perhaps with good reason. State legislatures are restructuring programs to align with workforce needs, and the federal government is tightening accountability rules based largely on graduate earnings outcomes.
On the other side of the argument, defenders of a traditional liberal arts education argue that such a single-minded focus on careers betrays higher education’s civic and intellectual purpose. But policymakers and institutions are picking sides in a fight that should not exist in the first place. The debate over effective citizenry and workforce development rests on a false binary. In fact, one cannot exist without the other. They depend on each other. A college that abandons one will fail at the other—and a country that lets its institutions choose between them will end up with graduates prepared for neither.
In reality, higher education can and must address both of these complex imperatives at the same time. One recent survey of 18-to-24-year-olds found that only 40 percent could correctly answer even one of four basic civics questions. At the same time, recent college graduates face a higher unemployment rate than the overall workforce. Too many students are leaving college without either the knowledge to participate in democracy or the skills to earn a family-sustaining wage. Graduates who cannot weigh evidence or explain a position clearly will struggle to find work, and graduates without stable work rarely have the time, energy, or security to be fully engaged citizens.
The strongest liberal arts experiences have always aimed to foster both civic capacity and economic mobility. Indeed, the goal of the 1862 Morrill Land-Grant Acts was to establish universities dedicated to both “liberal and practical education.” The point was to teach farming and engineering alongside science and liberal arts, creating graduates who could earn a living and take part in public life. That dual mission was the entire point.
The current debate often loses sight of the fact that the skills employers seek and those a democracy requires are largely the same. Just 18 percent of U.S. business leaders believe entry-level workers are well prepared for their careers. But the competencies employers think are missing are not necessarily technical ones. Each year, the National Association of Colleges and Employers asks employers what they want in new graduates, and the answers are pretty consistent. They want graduates who can solve problems, communicate effectively, and work collaboratively. Those are civic capacities as much as professional ones.
A citizen who can weigh competing claims, work alongside people who disagree, and explain a position clearly is also, by that same description, an employable graduate. When students deliberate over a real challenge in their communities, they are practicing the kinds of collaborative problem-solving that define most modern work. When they evaluate evidence and separate credible sources from misinformation, they are sharpening their analytical reasoning.
This is not a hypothetical. A growing number of institutions are embedding this dual-purpose approach directly into ordinary coursework. At the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, for example, students take courses closely aligned with local nonprofits, government agencies, or businesses.
In one such course, students worked to build an interactive digital map of the local United Way’s community partners. They learned data-mapping and design skills that translate directly to the workplace while creating a tool that helps their community. In another, students in a criminal justice course analyzed the results of an employee experience survey for a county youth detention center. They built research skills they can carry into any workplace while helping the center better support its staff and the young people in its care.
This idea is gaining momentum. The Civic Learning and Democracy Engagement Coalition, a group of more than 75 higher education and policy organizations, argues that students should graduate civic-ready, democracy-ready, and career-ready. The coalition views those aims as inseparable rather than competing, and its goal is to make civic learning a standard part of every degree.
The policymakers redesigning colleges around earnings data and the educators defending the life of the mind have more in common than they might think. Employers cannot build a productive workforce out of graduates who struggle to reason and collaborate, and a democracy cannot function when its citizens lack economic security. The solution does not require choosing a side, but rather ensuring that both workplace skills and civic education are unavoidable components of the college experience. Let’s stop asking students to pick between two things that cannot survive apart.
Dana Stephenson is founder of the work-based learning platform Riipen, which has connected more than 318,000 students with paid work experiences at more than 760 companies.
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