Are You Sharing the Data Teens Need to Choose Your College?
“How will my education support my career?”
That question is top of mind for high school students applying to college today, according to the most recent Question The Quo Education Pulse Survey.
The annual survey of 14-to-18-year-olds in the United States took their pulse on what high school students think about their postsecondary options… and how college might help them achieve their goals.
This year, the survey found that the majority of today’s high school students are thinking very seriously about their career pathways before they even get to a college website!
A few key findings:
- 51% of teenagers think about their education and career path daily
- 55% of teenagers have already begun exploring their career options during high school
- 74% of teenagers say it’s important to have a career in mind before they graduate from high school
- 75% of teenagers are aware of the current workforce shortage
The survey also found that cost is a major concern for Gen Z. 50% of teens are most concerned about graduating with a high amount of debt, and 60% are worried about how they’ll pay for college.
But sticker price isn’t the primary concern when those same students are choosing their future education and career path.
Here’s the top criteria for teenagers when choosing a path beyond high school:
- 82%: the career I’m interested in pursuing
- 81%: learning skills I need to be successful in the real world
- 79%: how much money I can make over the long term
- 68%: the cost of tuition
- 66%: how much money I can make immediately
- 63%: the amount of students loans I would need
And here’s one last stat for you: 89% of students say higher education needs to focus more on career preparedness.
While most colleges and universities embed career readiness into every single course, certificate and degree they offer—that information rarely makes its way to students. Instead, students are forced to draw their own conclusions about how an offering might help them achieve their dreams.
Modern higher education institutions need to revamp their approach to career readiness. They need to better-communicate to students how their education can support their outcomes. And making data available is the first step.
If a student comes to your site, and they’re looking to explore degree paths or career opportunities, but they’re not able to find them, then you failed.
By embedding career data on course and program pages—available in real-time on the website—colleges can take a giant leap forward on showing (not telling!) prospective students that their success matters.
The website needs to make the cost of a program clear… of course. But go a step further. Align program information with data that shows job availability, average salaries and career progression pathways. That way, students can have a clear sense both of what their education will cost them, and what their ROI on that investment can be.
Making this data available on your website doesn't have to be a burden. For customers using a wide range of Modern Campus solutions—including Destiny One, Modern Campus CMS and Acalog—it can be installed in a matter of hours!
Modern Campus Career Pathways is designed to make it fast and easy to share live and relevant labor market data on course and program pages. It shares job market outlook data that makes the ROI of an education pathway clear, and offers a career and program explorer to help students find the programs designed to help them progress toward their goals.
“Modern Campus Pathways is going to help us meet student expectations in a number of ways, through the Job Outlook data generated from the Bureau of Labor statistics, and through the degree, search and program offerings students can access,” Martinez said. “We’re really excited about what this module can do for us in delivering that personal experience to our students.”
Learn how you can bring Modern Campus Career Pathways to your website!
Last updated: May 25, 2022
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