This month’s issue of Community Leader focuses on postsecondary education at a time when our nation, state and region face an urgent and growing need for talent.
In fact, attracting, retaining and developing talent is the secret sauce of economic success, and the key ingredient is not in dispute among most economists — it’s educational attainment. At the national organization that I led for six years, CEOs for Cities, we called it the talent dividend.
The best long-term public policy investment is early childhood education, but the best near- and mid-term investment is post-high school education. High-quality degrees, industry certificates, certifications and credentials have never been more important. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 70% of jobs will require education or training beyond high school by 2027.
Yet the value of a college degree is being questioned, and colleges and universities are facing unprecedented headwinds. Many colleges and universities are facing declining undergraduate enrollment, increased competition from providers of alternative education pathways and the challenge of keeping up with the demands and desired skills for the 21st century modern workforce in a rapidly changing knowledge economy.
The growth in alternative pathways comes as more people of all ages opt for cheaper and faster alternatives to four-year degrees and as more employers drop requirements for them.
But, while college is not for everyone, the best postsecondary return on investment remains a college education. The data are clear that a bachelor’s degree is still the surest route to individual economic success. A study from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce found a lifetime gain of $1.2 million for those with bachelor’s degrees over those with only high school degrees.
At CEOs for Cities, we conducted research that showed that a college degree is not just about a college graduate’s success. It is the tide that lifts all boats. More than 60% of a city or region’s economic success, as measured by the single most important metric of economic growth — per capita income — can be attributed to the percentage of the adult population with a two- or four-year college degree. A college degree is just one point along the cradle-to-career educational continuum, but it is the single best proxy for the overall educational attainment of a city or region, which is why we called it the talent dividend.
Our research demonstrated that raising the nation’s college attainment rate by just 1% means a dividend of increased per capita income of over $100 billion per year for the nation. Cities with higher levels of education not only have higher incomes but also faster rates of income growth. Economists have found that a worker’s education has an effect not just on their own salary but on the entire community around them. In a sense, your neighbor’s education affects your salary. Research also shows that a region’s highest-educated workers are more likely not only to get jobs but to create them.
Seventy percent of college students get their first job in the state in which they go to school. Once they start work in another state, they may never return home. So the implications for Northeast Ohio’s talent retention and attraction efforts are enormous.
But if colleges don’t adapt to a rapidly changing world, there will be far fewer opportunities to earn that degree. In the words of Wayne Gretsky, higher education has to “skate to where the puck is going, not where it is.” Put another way, we must educate students for jobs and careers that don’t yet exist. Students are right to ask what they’ll get in return — both in money and life fulfillment — and they are right to demand more flexibility, including online options and a curriculum that is more relevant.
Cleveland State University (CSU), under the innovative leadership of President Laura Bloomberg, is charting a pathway that other colleges and universities would be wise to follow. Through a thoughtful strategic plan, CSU is enhancing its curriculum to align with the emerging needs and demands of the global, national and regional employment markets. CSU is expanding experiential and work-based learning as well as online education programs, and it is the first institution of higher education in Northeast Ohio to offer 11 new interdisciplinary degrees that will equip students with the future-ready skills required to lead and excel in an ever-evolving workforce.
Graduates equipped with 21st century interdisciplinary skills and immersive experiences in problem-solving, communication, digital literacy, critical thinking, teamwork and character development will be those who succeed in the knowledge economy.
At a time when cities and regions have become the economic engines of the nation and when the most valuable currencies of the new economy are knowledge and ideas, earning the talent dividend never has been more important.
