Today’s students are coming out of school with a distinct disadvantage. One that previous generations never had to face. We asked a wide range of high school students if they were working during their senior year. What we found was quite surprising. Its turned out that almost 90% of the seniors we asked are graduating without ever having held a job. Sure, they’ve had chores, helped grandma, or volunteered to clean up the parks; but hold a real paying job in a professional environment? No. 

That’s because the jobs that most students have held in previous generations are now in the hands of adults. Look at the job market and you can see why. Retail and malls are disappearing. The traditional jobs in places like fast food restaurants, grocery stores, and restaurants are now being taken by recent graduates or adults. Aside from working in the family business there aren’t as many jobs for high school students as there used to be. 

The fallout from that is a real skills gap, but one that you might not have imagined. It’s a skills gap that can be a real roadblock to high school graduates finding work when they leave school. It’s not the job skills they lack (that’s a discussion for a different blog post) it’s the “Getting a Job Skills” that are sadly missing. Students today aren’t coming out of school prepared for the working world. They lack the basic skills necessary to even find and land a good job. And that’s a huge problem for them and for employers around the country. 

Why this is so important is that almost all the students who graduate from high school this year are going to need to work. Let’s start with the 35% who, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, aren’t going on to any kind of higher education. Then we look at the students going on to Community College or Junior College. The statistics show that 92% of those students are hoping to work either full or part time while in school. 

It even effects the students heading off to four-year colleges. Again, the statistics show that within that community 70% of them are going to need to work while they’re in school. It’s clear that for the current generation of high school graduates the luxury of heading out into the world without the need to earn has fallen sharply. These kids need to work and they need the tools necessary to make that happen. 

WHAT DO THEY WANT TO DO?

Our conversations with rising junior and graduating seniors has shown that while about half of them might have an idea of what kind of job they want, only a quarter of them really feel that they know how to get it! When we dig deeper into what’s really going on we’ve seen that even though they say they know what they want to do, in reality they aren’t really even sure what they’re strengths are and aren’t completely sure that the job they’re seeking is the right fit. Most of the time it’s something that’s come to them from a family member. 

As we move down the line, we see that students are desperately in need of help in the areas necessary to get a job out of high school. They are aware of only a small number of the great jobs available for entry level candidates outside of the classic job opportunities. Not only don’t they know about the wide range of possibilities they’re not really sure how to find them. By almost a 2 to 1 margin they feel that they’re not really fully capable in knowing how to find jobs, how to assess if the job is right for them, and what steps are needed to get that job. How can they find the jobs if they don’t know they exist? And if they don’t know the right questions to ask or the places to look!  

The resources available to students who need jobs are spread out across the internet. There are hundreds of job boards, corporate sites, non-profit and for-profit training programs. But for a student to be able to find them all and to have the time and patience to put it all together is very difficult, if not impossible. One thing that all of the students who we spoke with said was that they would love if all of those things were in one place and if they could access it at their school.

WHAT TO DO WHEN THEY FIND IT?

There is more missing from these students education that just knowing their strengths and finding jobs. In speaking to students almost all of them tell us that they lack the skills necessary to GET the job! What they all, almost universally, say are missing is the ability to write a strong and convincing resume and the knowledge of what to do and say in an interview. Those are the two most important things for being able to land a job! 

Two-thirds of seniors are unsure of what should go into a resume and how it should look and sound. Three quarters of the students who we surveyed have never been on an interview and don’t feel confident that they would know how to act, what to say or even what to wear! And that’s a common complaint from all students. Previous generations had to learn on the fly, but there’s no reason today’s generation can’t get that information now!

And that’s something that can be taken care of at the school level. There’s no reason that schools can’t curate a curriculum that meets the needs of all students who are leaving for better things. All of the students we spoke with said that they wanted their schools to do a better job of preparing them for whatever work situations were coming, whether it was moving right into the work world or a part-time job when in college. 

WHERE DO THEY FIND THAT ALL IN ONE PLACE? 

Career Day is the only place that does all of what student’s need in one place. It’s for the 80 percent of high school students that feel that their high school is not preparing them for the working world. Even the 20 % who said that their high school is doing something to help, it’s not enough and it’s not always what they want! 

Career Day is for the 100% of respondents who feel that a program that has a process for identifying their strengths, finding the right CTE pathways, and presenting career coaching like resume writing and interview prep is something they want in their high schools NOW! Being able to find these things while in school is great. Being able to access them whenever they have the need or the time is even better. And that’s one of the biggest bonuses of the Career Day programs. 

We have all the things they need to be successful, and the students know it. We’ve had incredible feedback and support from all of the students and educators who’ve had a chance to access and use the Career Day program. They get what they need, when they need it, and how they want it. 

Because what we’ve learned from speaking to high school seniors is that the only way to really help this new generation of students isn’t to push them all in the same direction, but to help them find the right direction. Then it’s essential that their schools give them the job skills they need and the “Getting a Job Skills” that will help start them on the road to lifelong success.