Courier Times – College Transitions Team
“A simplistic view of higher education is that people emerge from four years of college with a specific skill related to their primary area of study: Education majors learn how to teach, accounting majors learn how to crunch numbers, allied health majors learn skills particular to the healthcare profession, and so on down line. Yet, no matter your primary field of study, there are certain generalized skills that will serve you well in the modern economy where the average worker will change jobs an astonishing 11 times. Abilities in the areas of written expression, public speaking, foreign language, and quantitative analysis can and should be honed while pursuing a degree in any field…we now reside in a globalized marketplace where knowledge, trade, and investments know no borders. For anyone entering fields such as business, finance, information technology, software development, government, law enforcement, or healthcare (just to name a handful), fluency in a foreign language has never been more advantageous…Bi-lingual college grads entering the private sector right now can expect a 10-15% pay increase right off the bat; those conversant in Mandarin Chinese, German, Japanese, and Arabic may demand even higher compensation.”(more)