The postsecondary sector is responding to the climate emergency through disaster preparedness, updating facilities and operations, curricular reforms, and supporting research. But are we adequately preparing our students for a society, economy, and world that will likely look dramatically different from that of 2022?
While advocacy for college students’ career readiness and “soft skills” are ubiquitous, they rarely include discussions of, or attend to, the climate emergency. This is a major problem given the prospect of an uncertain or even tumultuous economy and future of work in coming decades, and the need for our students to develop innovation and critical thinking skills to address our myriad current and future challenges.
Associate Professor of Adult & Higher Education Matthew Hora is leading a pilot study on these topics, and a report that documents the “state of the art” regarding higher education’s inclusion of climate-related issues in career advising and skills-focused teaching. The report will include recommendations for how campus leadership, career advisors, and faculty developers can better prepare our students for a new world. A summary of key findings from this project will be published in the November/December 2023 issue of Change: The magazine of higher learning .