In this fifth installment of our seven-week Careers of the Future series, Aaron Jackson, associate professor of economics and director of the Bentley Honors Program, makes the case that a range of broad career opportunities awaits students who have the critical thinking and problem-solving skills gained through an economics degree education.
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There’s good reason for America’s colleges and corporations to focus on millennials. The latest data indicate that approximately half the workforce in the United States will be millennial by 2020. At many accounting, finance and professional service firms, the average age of the workforce today is 27, which puts them squarely in the midst of the Millennial Movement. It’s also important to point out that the oldest millennials — who are nearing 35 — can be counted among the nation’s leading entrepreneurs, managers and executives.
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Respondents to the PreparedU Project research study identified four top initiatives that, along with a commitment to lifelong learning, can help millennials prepare for workplace success. As a result, we now launch a seven-week series on Careers of the Future and how millennial students can prepare for them. We begin with an overview by Susan Brennan, executive director of career services.
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When I left Illinois State University for a post at Bentley University three years ago, it raised a few eyebrows among the liberal-arts colleagues I was leaving behind and at the business university where I would become their dean of arts and sciences.
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Bentley University’s preparedness research documents a desire by employers for millennial graduates who can make an immediate impact with their professional and technical qualifications while also demonstrating creativity, problem solving, and interpersonal skills, all of which are required in senior level leaders.
Easier said than done, some believe.
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How can it be that in 2013, women currently hold just 10 to 15 percent of the senior leadership (C-Suite) positions in corporate America?
And why haven’t we made more progress, given that women now represent 58 percent of our college graduates and hold 50 percent of middle-management positions — with 40 percent holding positions that include purchasing authority?
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Bentley Releases Results of Major National Survey of 3,000-Plus Millennials, Parents, and Business and Higher Ed Leaders.
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All handwringing over the plight of the millennials notwithstanding, this is a great time to be graduating from college. The Great Recession is receding. Major stock market indices are achieving all-time highs. And the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that unemployment among college graduates is down to 4 percent, close to the level considered to be full employment, even as unemployment for those with a high school education and no college remains >8 percent.
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The Trustees of Reservations was facing a challenge. The statewide nonprofit, whose focus is land conservation and historic preservation, wanted to grow membership rates among 18- to 24-year-olds. But the organization was uncertain how to best engage this sophisticated, media-savvy group known as Generation Y.
Who better to ask than fellow members of the target audience?
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