Fortune 500 executive: College grads aren’t ready for today’s jobs
It’s a period of uncertainty for college graduates. Almost half report feeling ill-equipped for even entry-level positions in their respective fields.
Many employers concur. Approximately one out of six hiring managers are reluctant to bring on recent graduates due to a lack of workplace skills such as teamwork and communication. Yet nine out of ten educators maintain their graduates are ready to enter the workforce.
Employers cannot afford to wait for this gap to close on its own. As retirements accelerate and artificial intelligence automates some entry-level tasks, they must take the lead — by partnering directly with colleges and universities to provide students with real-world experience before they graduate.
The pandemic deepened the disconnect between employers and young workers. Years of remote learning deprived students of formative experiences like lab work and campus leadership roles. Many graduates now have strong academic foundations but less practice navigating unspoken professional norms.
On top of that, many entry-level roles that once taught young professionals fundamental skills — including data analysis, coding, and report-writing — are vanishing as companies adopt AI. This may boost productivity today. But it hinders firms from developing the next generation of talent to lead them in the future.
Universities and employers have also grown more distant. Curricula struggle to keep up with rapidly evolving fields like AI or cybersecurity. Many faculty still gauge workforce readiness by mastery of course material. Employers, however, may prioritize the ability to collaborate as part of a team and solve problems under pressure over quick recall of facts — especially with AI on the rise.
Meanwhile, with hybrid work now standard at many companies, new hires may have fewer opportunities for the informal learning and mentorship that can speed up their competence and professional growth.
The outcome? Graduates entering an economy that values skills they haven’t had the chance to practice — and employers facing talent shortages they can’t fill.
One of the most effective ways to bridge that gap is through closer collaboration between universities and industry.
When students work directly with industry mentors — in a lab, on a factory floor, or at a startup — they develop the teamwork and communication skills that few professors can teach, regardless of how collaborative or group-focused the class may be. An engineer troubleshooting a real production issue can learn more about working in the “real world” in a week than in a semester of lectures.
For their part, employers get to identify and invest in talent early, building pipelines for graduates who already understand workplace expectations. These partnerships ensure a steady stream of job-ready professionals in high-demand fields like engineering and healthcare technology, where talent demand far exceeds supply.
Universities and employers are showcasing how effective this model can be.
Purdue and are training biomanufacturing talent through a $250 million partnership in AI and robotics. Google’s AI lab at Carnegie Mellon provides students with real-world experience before graduation. Siemens’ new Center of Excellence at Georgia Tech immerses engineering students in digital twin and simulation projects.
At Abbott, we’re investing in similar partnerships — connecting classrooms to cutting-edge healthcare technology and helping launch careers in science and engineering. Through the HBCU Cybersecurity Industry Collaboration Initiative, we’ve joined with and [hotlink]Raytheon Technologies[/hotlink] to strengthen cybersecurity curricula at engineering schools in Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Initiatives like these can restore what technology has eroded. By building bridges between classrooms and workplaces, they give students the opportunity to develop both technical and soft skills. An engineering student designing a prototype for a company gains not only technical proficiency but also the judgment and teamwork skills that textbooks can’t teach. Simultaneously, companies can observe how students solve problems and collaborate — insights that shape hiring and training decisions.
Technology is transforming every industry. But no algorithm can replace sound judgment, teamwork, or clear communication. These skills are solely the product of human experience. If companies want prepared talent tomorrow, they need to help cultivate it today.