The Job Market Myth
The economy is often times like a large body of water. Here in the mid-west, we've been reminded lately that bodies of water do indeed rise and fall. We know this. We have historical records reminding us. We have stories to tell of '93, '99, and now 2008. And yet, for all that, we always seem to forget that bodies of water are not static. We always seem to live our normal, daily lives as if bodies of water are stable. We go about business assuming that where the water line was yesterday is where it will be today.
The problem with that, of course, is that it is simply not true. But what is more interesting is when these water levels shift a great amount in a short span of time we often times realize the fallacy of our static-oriented mindset.
Take for example Lake Delton in the Wisconsin Dells. It is a man-made lake, and for years stood as the cornerstone of a small economic machine that drove the local tourist economy. And then, during the floods, the man-made dam that held the water in broke open, and drained the entire lake.
What followed is what I'm trying to get at. For the first time in a long time, sans water, residents of the area saw the bed of Lake Delton. It was these startling images that reminded us that many assumptions people had about the way things work were simply wrong.
In that same vein, with the deepening of the recession we're in, the draining of our national economic lake is revealing for the first time in a long time several misconceptions and false assumptions/assertions we've been making for far too long. One of the biggest false assumptions we've been making here in higher-education that is now finally being exposed as the economy worsens concerns our relationship to preparing students for the job market.
Simply put: what goes on in the classroom is a small, insignificant part of very large and complex equation that results in gainful employment upon leaving college. Take for example the thousands upon thousands of incredibly qualified, highly intelligent college graduates who are unable to find any work simply because the economic situation shies away from hiring new employees. For these unfortunate individuals, the ability to thoughtfully draft a cogent argument has absolutely no effect on their ability to secure employment in any area that would require such a skill. In fact, it might make these individuals too expensive to hire in this economic climate.
This, of course, completely shoots a very large hole in the argument that we should be preparing students, through batteries of testable skills, for the job market. Frankly, it's not the skills that results in a student getting a job. Once a student has passed all but the most fundamental levels of "skills" in various areas (which most do well before they reach college), then whether they got an A or a C in a first year writing classroom is ultimately of absolutely no importance what-so-ever. The "skills" most employers need out of employees are usually the sorts of "skills" that are learned on the job, and simply cannot be provided for in college classrooms, especially college writing classrooms.
What lands a student a job? An expanding economy and luck. Not much else, as we're finding out. Take out the expanding economy part and NO student, regardless of how well they did in school, will fare well on the job market. "Job market skills training" helps only the ones who actually get jobs, and this number is falling sharply as the economy worsens. What of the ones who get squeezed out and cannot find a job that, while they may be highly qualified for, just does not exist? These are the ones I stay up at night worrying about.
In my mind, the question now turns to: what sorts of classrooms might make a student's life more worthy as they realize the job market doesn't care who they are when they are standing in the unemployment line with a college degree in one hand and an inside-out empty pocket in the next. We can't stake our role in society as an institution that gives people "skills" that ultimately are only worthwhile for the select few who wind up using them on the job market. We have to be about something else. Somehow I doubt any textbook is up to this task.