The relationship between higher education and industry has undergone a significant transformation. What once was a clear linear progression from higher education to industry has now become more fluid, with nonlinear careers and frequent transitions between higher ed and the workforce becoming more common. In this interview, Ritu Saksena discusses the current state of the industry-higher ed, the challenges to meeting industry demands and how workforce-aligned programming can help.
The EvoLLLution (Evo): How would you describe the current relationship between higher ed and the industry?
Ritu Saksena (RS): Higher education writ large has always had a symbiotic relationship with industry, and what used to be a clear linear progression from one to the other has become much more amorphous of late. We are now seeing more nonlinear careers, and as a result working professionals are more readily stepping in and out of higher education with increasing frequency. Learners are looking at higher education for timely opportunities for career advancement, upskilling, reskilling or even for a career change. This is a significant shift in how learners approach higher education and their own career needs. And with the larger conversation around the ROI of a college degree, universities are exploring career-readiness opportunities for their students and looking at industry with a different lens.
In the professional, continuing and online education spaces, we have long-standing experience with meeting adult learners’ needs in terms of career advancement, career changes, upskilling and reskilling. We foreground workforce needs and offer programs that align with industry needs. We recognize that a holistic educational framework combining key soft skills with experiential or applied learning opportunities is key to a successful transition to the workforce. And we can partner across our institutions to develop these professional programs or microcredentials either as standalone credentials or embedded in existing programs. To summarize, a larger shift in this relationship was inevitable, and what seems to be driving it is learners looking to optimize their educational experience through affordability and accessibility.
Evo: Why is it important for higher ed to focus on aligning their programming with industry needs?
RS: Whichever way you decide to approach this, either from an industry or a higher ed perspective, we have to address what learners need to get into the workforce or to step into their professional career, so it is important for program outcomes to align with industry needs.
That alignment can exist in several ways across higher education. Thinking of graduate research programs, in some ways that alignment is tied with future industry needs by developing new technologies, new knowledge and research. For us in the continuing education space, however, that alignment is much more anchored in current-day industry needs and career outcomes. We develop and offer graduate professional degrees that closely align with external frameworks like professional certifications and licensure. Or our degrees position our students well for new careers or leadership positions, allow them to pivot into a specialized field or to help them develop an advanced understanding of specialized topics. We can easily and readily adapt, pivot and shift our portfolio to accommodate their evolving needs. And it is important for us to keep an eye on those needs, so we can update program curricula to reflect key changes and keep pace with new trends.
Evo: What are the challenges to addressing both learner and industry needs?
RS: We find ourselves at a very interesting juncture, almost an inflection point, in higher education today. Learner needs are always about the here and now. Each student has a very unique educational journey and their own definition of success. So, while we design all our programs and degrees to be learner-centric, we need to acknowledge that each student engages with that process differently.
In this post-pandemic world, we find ourselves dealing with new issues and unique complexities at the intersection of learner and industry needs, and balancing them can be a challenge. We are seeing students struggle to engage with their peers and meet their priorities and goals in a timely way. On the industry front, changes to remote work and flexibility have opened up new fronts in professional interactions like telehealth. The goalposts are moving, and it is becoming a bigger lift for us to adapt. Supporting our students through all this means providing clear frameworks that reinforce professional expectations and standards. We need to prepare them to understand new workplace practices, navigate remote and hybrid ways of working and, as we know, that is also evolving. Juggling these differing needs is a priority, a challenge but also an opportunity, and we will rise to that challenge.
Evo: What are some best practices to overcome the obstacles you mentioned?
RS: Unfortunately, there are no easy answers here, since the complexities within this space have only continued to grow as we’ve adopted remote and hybrid work and now AI. So, we have to be ready to adapt to this changing reality. As we think about career readiness, communications, services and more, the impact of new technologies and AI is being felt across the board. We must be cognizant of these fast-moving changes in society and the consequent impact on the educational journey from recruitment to admissions all the way to graduation. How do we think about effectively embracing and leveraging new tools and technology in our work but within institutional guidelines and policies? How will it impact jobs of the future?
AI is here and we need to start talking to students about what that looks like now and in the future—not just in the classroom but in the workforce—and start to build that into the curriculum. If we do that well, then they are better prepared to tackle this challenge in their workplace. So, as we develop processes and solutions to address these challenges and best support our students this is something we have to factor in.
Evo: What role does continuing education play in closing the skills gap?
RS: Continuing education units used to be at the periphery of the university in some ways. Traditionally, we served the needs of nontraditional learners, adult learners and working professionals through a portfolio that ranged from degrees to short-term professional development programs. As I said before, the constantly evolving landscape, the impending demographic cliff and the renewed interest in adult learners makes continuing, professional and online education a bigger part of the conversation around higher ed.
As a degree-granting college at a large public research institution, we need to partner and collaborate more with other colleges to better support students in becoming career ready. More traditional departments are looking at industry to figure out how to bring that learning into the classroom. We have an opportunity here to help shape some of these programs because we’ve done this work successfully for so long and have extensive experience working with these unique learners. We know the value of bringing the working professional experience into the classroom and how to engage with and support them. Those are some of the ways we can play a big role in helping our universities address the need to close that skills gap.
Evo: What impact does closing this gap have on the learners?
RS: From a student perspective, the financial impact of closing this gap is key. We know the return-on-investment issue is real, so we help students get a job at the end of their education by tailoring their educational journey to their professional goals. Now we are starting to see these conversations about career goals happen earlier in their programs with advisors and faculty who want to make sure they are headed down the right path. Providing initial support has become integral to making that learning experience work for them in the right ways. Many students are trying to carve out their own academic pathways to get to their goal sooner and at a lower cost.
Potentially closing the skills gap will also make it that much easier to shift the larger narrative around the importance of education. All of us in higher education strongly believe in the mission, but perhaps we can do a better job at clearly explaining the long-term opportunities and the significant impact on earning potential through a lifelong career.
Evo: Is there anything you’d like to add?
RS: One big trend we are noticing is students are far more informed coming in. Having easy access to so much information is helpful, and students approach their educational options with many questions, many along the lines of the conversation around ROI. They are creating their own unique pathways or planning ahead by taking advanced coursework toward their next credential. That willingness to engage earlier in the process makes it easier for us to work with them to help them figure out what they want to do. The larger question for us is how we continue to think creatively and harness this energy to build innovative programs that meet future learners’ needs.
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