Are Universities Preparing Students For the Gig Economy?
The Rise of the Gig Economy
In these hard times of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, the way we live and work is transforming due to the rise of the gig economy. When due to lock-down and social distancing, global economies are collapsing and millions and millions of people are going jobless each day, at the same time the gig economy is on the rise and is enabling people from every walk of life to earn money and that to in a flexible way according to their time and convenience.
According to McKinsey & Company, typically gig workers fall into four categories:
- Free agents, those who willing and actively go for independent work and take gig work as their primary source of income.
2. Casual earners are those who take up gig work as a secondary source of income and that too willingly and by choice.
-3. Reluctants use independent work as a primary source of income but prefer traditional 9–5 jobs.
4. The financially strapped are those who have to gig work out of necessity.
Gig economy is providing people with an alternate source of income and an opportunity of complementing their traditional 9–5 jobs by side work or by committing full — time to work independently.
However, are the universities and higher education institutions preparing students for the future work and the gig economy?
How Universities Should Prepare The Students For Gig Economy
Despite the transformation in how work used to be, higher education institutes and universities have yet to incorporate study and practice of gig economy into the curriculum and career services. Rather, students are still being educated, trained and prepared according to a full time 9–5 job. This approach is a disservice to those students who would be graduating ill equipped and unqualified to fit in the future work force as an independent worker.
To train and prepare students for the future work force which they will be becoming a part of after graduating, higher educational institutes and universities should be implementing the following steps:
Academic & Skills Gap
Mostly students struggle and strive to get into renowned colleges and universities with very high hopes of attaining a degree believing that the degree is the key to a successful career and life. In general it is quality education. No doubt getting higher education brightens the future, but are those colleges and universities training and equipping the students well for the future work?
Now normally after graduation students get into a severe job hunt and are really keen and eager to put into practice whatever they have learnt at college or university. But in reality, the life outside college or university premises entirely different. Instantly learning new skills, knowledge and abilities to adapting a new environment is crucially important for success.
While getting enrolled in a college or university, students expect that they would gain all the knowledge, skills and abilities that the higher education have to give them. Students have a right to not only get educated and also to be trained and prepared for the work and it is an institutions responsibility to teach and train the students, fully maximizing their potential.
Unfortunately, colleges and universities do enlighten the students with knowledge and skills but they fail to prepare the students for the professional life.
Employers understand and recognize the role of colleges and universities in getting students prepared for the life after graduation. They believe that in order for students to succeed in the future work economy, colleges and universities must work on improving and enhancing abilities and skills like:
Communication skills
Critical thinking and analytical reasoning
Complex problem solving and analyzing skills
Teamwork and ethical decision making
Practical application of skills and knowledge
Providing skillset and learning environment relevant to the workplace
The times and changing and new innovations and technologies are being embraced in every field and industry, therefore it’s important and high time that educational institutes also started to keep up with the advancements.
Teaching Independent Skills
The gig economy and independent work is totally different at core than the traditional 9–5 job. In a traditional office setting, workers need familiarisation with skills and knowledge like general office rules, how to communicate in fast paced work environment and how to work efficiently with a management.
However, independent workers need a completely different set of skills and knowledge to work in the gig economy. Problems and challenges faced by gig workers are different and unique like, how to manage taxes, how pitch services to the potential client, how to get a business established, how to work efficiently on a short term basis with an organization.
Time and time again, these skills come up in various different gig works. Such as consultants, must know the art of pitching services to clients as well as manage taxes. In short, if the students are to adapt to the future gig economy they need to learn these skills head on ahead of time.
At the moment, many students that graduated, went to a traditional job, but due to the pandemic either switched to work from home setting as the business are operating remotely or lost their jobs. Whichever the case is, there is still a huge potential that independent work might take over their traditional jobs in the near future.
Initial steps that higher educational institutes and universities should be taking is to incorporate discussions regarding the gig economy into current courses and also introducing new courses about the gig economy. These courses would be the best way to explore gig economy and future workforce and its opportunities in depth making sure that graduating students have a bright and clear picture and understanding about how the gig economy functions and have every knowledge required to thrive as an independent worker.
The Role of Placement Centers
According to Michigan’s Ashford, traditionally, placement centers were designed to organize and prepare students for white collar jobs at giant corporations and if any of the students wanted to work at a small startup or a nonprofit, they were left on their own. But that culture is shifting now.
The sudden and comparatively new interest in independent work isn’t just a post-graduation plan. Undergraduate students have always been looking for opportunities to earn additional money while being in school and for the past few years many students have approached their career coaches with the same query as to how to land job without missing on classes.
Gig Work isn’t a new and alien concept in many creative fields like music and arts. Instead it’s been the nature of work in these field for a very long time and many schools have helped by facilitating the students in getting opportunities.
Now, the gig economy has spread like a wildfire catalyzed by technology and globalization reaching into each and every industry and market making it simpler and easy to connect the contractors and the companies with each other.
Providing Gig Counselling with Career Sessions
Presently, mostly higher educational institutes and universities emphasis on students landing the appropriate full time 9–5 job as the traditional job ensures an employment security and a paycheck every month and assists the freshly graduated in climbing up the traditional career ladder. Although, it’s high time now that universities and educational institutes begin to talk about gig economy as a part of career counselling sessions.
Student while entering a career counselling session believes that traditional full time job is the only option for them. And this piece of misinformation is limiting those students ability to develop and progress further in their careers in the future. Such as, many young professionals while being on a traditional job hunt after graduation can use gig economy to take up consulting roles and build and strengthen their portfolios while being on the lookout for the perfect job. Also, independent work is perfectly appropriate opportunity for freshly graduates to earn an income and build a strong portfolio as well, as they are inexperienced and just getting into a job hunt.
