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| PRESS RELEASE: SURVEY INFO:
CONTACT:
Dan Walsch
Hope Heyman
Mark Devaney |
Lifetime Learning Survey:SUMMARY OF FINDINGSIn the Lifetime Learning Survey, George Mason University and the Potomac KnowledgeWay set out to measure how their life experience has shaped or re-shaped the attitudes of college graduates toward their undergraduate education and their ideas about education, both to enhance their private and their professional lives. In nationwide phone interviews, 400 college graduates, all of whom were currently working, at least ten years out of college, and under 55 years of age were contacted.Lifetime Learning to Manage Career VolatilityThere is a broad consensus about the volatility of contemporary working life. Virtually all respondents agreed that lifetime learning will be an essential part of everyone's career, careers they expect will be more varied than in the past. More than half (51 percent) said they had already changed careers at least once since college. Moreover, this trend cut across all industries and all kinds of degrees earned. As for jobs within careers, the respondents have held an average of four jobs since graduation and expected at least one more job change in the future.Their commitment to lifetime learning goes well beyond lip service. A majority (57 percent) report that they have already taken post-graduate college courses, not related to degree programs (that is not pursuant to law, medical, or other advanced degrees). And almost half (46 percent) believed they would need to take college-level refresher courses in the next three to five years to enable their careers to advance. Almost a third (31 percent) held postgraduate degrees. Regrets, They Have a FewPerhaps unsurprisingly, given their experiences, they are not without second thoughts about their college choices. Almost half of them (43 percent) say if they had it to do over again, they would have majored in something else, with the most popular choices being science or technology (39 percent), the liberal arts (32 percent), and business (21 percent).Interestingly, the survey detected a measurable degree of restlessness among those in the information technology industry. They are slightly less likely than the overall sample to say they would choose a different major (39 percent), but those who wish they had studied something else overwhelmingly (56 percent) opt for the "other" category, usually meaning the liberal arts, or education (26 percent). Only 7 percent selected business or computer science. Moreover, while the sample as a whole splits slightly in favor of their own enjoyment (44 percent) over the need to advance their career (40 percent) as a reason for a different major, those in the information technology industry overwhelmingly opted for the pleasure principle. Only 26 percent said their new choice is motivated by career needs; 70 percent said they chose their alternative major for their own enjoyment. Similarly, when asked if there were particular subjects or courses they wished they had given more emphasis to in college, almost half (45 percent) of the graduates say "yes." Those in the information technology industry are even more wistful, with a bare majority (51 percent) yearning for something they had missed in their undergraduate years. The liberal arts (72 percent) was the road more wished they had taken, followed by science, technology or computer science (15 percent), and business (12 percent). Specific interests mentioned under "other" courses vary wildly across the liberal arts, ranging from ancient history to economics to foreign languages. A third of respondents say this course of study would help on their jobs, 21 percent say they would take it purely for their personal interests, and 17 percent say it answers both their personal and professional needs. Here too, those in the information technology industry are less likely to say the course would meet their professional needs (28 percent) and more likely to cite personal interest (31 percent). A Global Economy, Perhaps, But in EnglishThe imperatives of the information economy, not the global one, dominate their assessment of employer and career-related learning. Almost half (46 percent) said their employers and/or careers would require more computer related studies. Only 2 percent thought they would need to study a foreign language. Confirming their perception that both American and world economies have entered the Information Age, another 16 percent cite communication and the language arts as their key career need. Accounting and finance, themselves also information functions, are cited by 10 percent, science by 8 percent. Whether it is a reflection of their belief that specialists will handle these matters or simply the declining role of government generally, only 5 percent mention law and politics. Saying "other" were 22 percent, citing a variety of fields, including engineering, education, medical care management, and marketing.Asked why they thought the field they cited would be required by their employer, almost half (49 percent) say it is directly related to their career and they are expected to know about these issues to do their job. Another 38 percent expect that it will impact their work in the future and that they are expected to evaluate the technology involved to do their job well. For basic knowledge, as opposed to immediate application, say 13 percent of respondents. Growing Confidence in their Mastery of TechnologyRegardless of what they studied as undergraduates, advancing technology holds few terrors for them. Large majorities (60 percent) report themselves comfortable with the technology at work and in their homes, with another third (33 percent) saying they were getting by, but a little concerned about future developments, and only 7 percent expressed a fear that changes would pass them by. Confidence in their ability to make choices about technology to meet professional and personal needs is also high, with three-quarters (76 percent) saying they were comfortable making these decisions and only 11 percent expressing uncertainty.Technology plays a key role in their work. Asked what field of learning their employers would most likely require them to pursue, almost half (46 percent) cited computer-related studies, with communication and language arts coming in a distant second (16 percent), and accounting and finance (10 percent) third. Two Thumbs Up for the Continuing Role of the UniversityPerhaps because college played a greater part of their lives than for any previous generation in American history, the graduates strongly endorse the relevance of university work, rejecting by almost a two-to-one margin the notion that it is too "ivory tower" for real-world applications. Only 7 percent strongly agree and 28 percent agree, in contrast to 44 percent disagreeing and 11 percent strongly disagreeing.By even larger margins (29 percent strongly agreeing and 63 percent agreeing), the respondents see universities, in partnership with local industries, playing an important role in supporting the continuing education of employees. One employer concern, that people will use continuing education courses as platforms to build skills to market themselves elsewhere, may be overstated. More graduates (47 percent) think people take courses to maintain or build their proficiency in their current jobs, rather than get new or different ones (39 percent), although the relatively small margin suggests that employer concerns are not entirely unmerited. One employer concern that does seem unmerited is the fear that by paying for all or part of their employees' continuing education, they are buying them a ticket to ride off to other, possibly competing firms. Instead, reimbursement for continuing education appears to help to build loyalty to the organization. Overwhelmingly (89 percent) of the graduates said they would actually be more likely to stay with a company which paid for all or a substantial part of their continuing education. |
