Supporting solid steps from higher education into sustainable jobs

Abstract

The current corona crisis seems to be a stress test for the resilience of our society. Having tested the capacity of our health care system first, it has moved on to test our economic and social systems. As such, the crisis exposes much of the cracks and loopholes that were already present before the crisis. This might also be true for our higher education system. While teachers have been making a rapid change to on-line teaching, students have been challenged with ‘learning from a distance’. Simultaneously, students have seen their future perspectives going from excellent to unsure in a matter of months, at least in terms of their likeliness of getting a job soon after graduation. This essay looks at the transition of students into their first jobs and outlines the obstacles and opportunities. It identifies what young people need to become and remain resilient in mod-ern labor markets, and indicates how higher education might support their students.