By Alex Adamopoulos for Forbes
Higher education is judged based on the value it imparts to graduates. But that value is almost always characterized in terms of what kind of degree the student leaves with. Once you enter the working world, degrees don’t really matter; job recruiters aren’t breathing down your neck about your GPA.
What companies are really looking for, and the kinds of employees who end up excelling at their work, are those with transferable skills — the capacity for problem-solving, teamwork, decision-making and critical thinking. These are the traits that matter most in workers, yet universities are not doing enough to ensure that students are graduating with these skills under their belt.
What you learn in school about a given field will almost certainly change by the time you enter that field. What never changes, though, is the value that you bring to the table — in any job, in any industry — by mastering those transferable skills.
