Show vv 11 v 11 1 11 If It Seems To Me MeIly Meny fly Ily Joseph Josrph B. B Roberts Job opportunities COPYRIGHT 1977 Contemporary Features Syndicate Inc Last year I t wrote a column advising high school students to give serious consideration to a college education before passing it up At the time the employment picture for college graduates was pretty bleak and many high school counselors counselors coun coun- were advising students to seek the on-the-job training or go to toa a vocational school rather than waste time in college I believed students who were academically suited should go goto goto goto to college regardless of oC what the employment situation might be at the time I felt fell then as I do donow donow donow now that advising qualified students to stay away from college was shortsighted and wrong I wrote You have learned that college graduates are a dime a dozen in the job market there are arc too many teachers engineers lawyers scientists or whatever and most jobs in inthe inthe inthe the future will not require college graduates Then I pointed out that nobody can predict accurately what the employment opportunities opportunities op op- op will be four or five years from now and it just seemed good common sense for fora a student to make himself or herself employable in as wide a range of jobs as possible by taking advantage of the broad background of education and training a college offers Well now I feel fee somewhat vindicated Just about a year after I wrote that column the job situation for college graduates has improved markedly The College Placement nt Council now predicts good to excellent job prospects for many students graduating from our colleges and universities this spring It says employment will be much brighter for college graduates than thap they were last year In fact this years year's graduates will have better job opportunities than their rs have had for forthe forthe forthe the past four or five years The Council surveyed more than representative em em- players in business and government and learned that th they y planned to hire twelve percent more new college graduates in 1977 1971 than they did didIn didin didin in 1976 While this increase does not promise a return to the booming job markets of the GO'S GOS when anybody with a college degree had his pick of oC jobs it Isa is isa isa a refreshing change from two straight years of oC decline in the hiring of oC college graduates and it indicates better times ahead Employers have cautioned however that their hiring willbe will willbe willbe be selective and while top- top quality candidates may have many more good offers from which to choose this year than last the less qualified candidates candidates can can- will still have difficulty finding jobs advice to students take the courses you need to be well qualified and earn the grades you need to be top-quality top Evidently employers are once more recognizing the advantage advantage ad ad- vantage of hiring educated people with special training who can start producing as soon as they arrive on the job This is obvious in the scientific and technical fields where the demand for new graduates is greatest The Council reports employers plan to hire 24 percent more engineers than they hired last year and 13 percent more graduates in the sciences and mathematics But there is encouraging new for the liberal art graduates as well Employers forecast an eight percent increase in jobs over last year for liberal arts majors mostly in the private sector Surprisingly the smallest increase in jobs will be for business majors which will be seven percent There will be however an increase of 17 percent in jobs available to graduates with masters master's degrees in business administration ad ad- ministration As I pointed out in my previous column a college should offer much more than mere job preparation It is nice niceto to know however that a college education may be once more a marketable commodity Experience makes hope Goethe's Mother Education is our sixth sense Clive Bell |