Study Forecasts More Jobs for College Grads

If you’re pursuing a college degree, stay the course.

A new study says that there could be 55 million job openings in the economy through 2020. Twenty-four million of those openings will be from newly created jobs and 31 million openings will be due to baby boomer retirements.

The study, conducted by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, states: “Notwithstanding failure to resolve the federal government’s budgetary challenges, the U.S. economy will grow from 140 million to 165 million jobs by 2020.”

In total, 65 percent of all jobs in the economy will require postsecondary education and training beyond high school.

Titled Recovery: Job Growth and Education Requirements through 2020, the report predicts that without major changes to the U.S. postsecondary education system, however, the economy will fall short 5 million workers with postsecondary degrees by 2020.

Here are some other findings from the study:

6 million jobs will require a graduate degree13 million jobs will require a baccalaureate degree7 million jobs will require an associate’s degreePostsecondary education will be most in demand in healthcare, information technology, and government, where 80 percent of jobs will require more than a high school diploma.Job openings in healthcare, community services, and STEM will grow the fastest among occupational clusters.

The report says that the United States is more educated than ever. In 1973, workers with postsecondary education held only 28 percent of jobs. By comparison, they held 59 percent of jobs in 2010 and will hold 65 percent of jobs in 2020.

The study also finds that for the upcoming jobs, the skills most valued and in demand are in leadership, communication, and analysis. Of all occupations, 96 require critical thinking and active listen to be either very important or extremely important to success.

The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce is an independent, nonprofit research and policy institute that studies the link between individual goals, education and training curricula and career pathways. It is affiliated with the Georgetown Public Policy Institute.

Visit the center’s site to read either an executive summary or the full report.

What do you think about the study? Are you optimistic about the future of the job market?

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3 Reasons You Should Study Online

By Dr. Randall Woodard,
assistant professor of theology/religion

I have to admit that when I first started teaching online, I was apprehensive about online education.

I’m one of those students who really appreciated and got a lot out of my classroom experiences as an undergrad and grad student. I earned my bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees all in traditional face to face formats.

For me, being in a room with others, feeling well prepared through prior reading, listening to an expert lecture about important ideas, and hearing the ideas of other students offered in a real-time discussion was a meaningful and fruitful educational experience.

This was how I learned well. It was also my only experience of learning, having only taken classes this way.

I came to Saint Leo University in 2008 to teach theology and religion classes at University Campus. In my second year at Saint Leo, I was asked to teach religion and theology online and was still unsure about it when compared to traditional learning. I’ve been teaching online for the past four years -- and have grown to appreciate the education value of this format.

But it was not until I took a few online courses in the instructional design program this past year, that I realized the true advantages of online learning from a busy, working adult’s perspective.

Looking back, there are three things I have learned by being an online student that have made me a believer in online education.

1. I’ve found that online education, although different, can bring about each of the elements I appreciated about on-ground education, but in a different kind of space.

 Each of the courses I have taken modeled the same positive elements of the classroom, but using the online “space” rather than a typical classroom. The content expertise, my own hard work, and the input from peers all remain, but take place in a modified way – through the podcasts, the clear learning objectives, the interactive materials, and in our discussion boards. The experience took some adaptation on my part, but it was all there.

2. The transition from the classroom to an online asynchronous model is the only way I could have taken course and continued my education.

As an adult with a busy full-time job, kids in sports, and more housework than I care to even admit, all of the instruction takes place on my time. I no longer have a long chunk of time each week that I could use to drive to class, be in the classroom and study the way I did as an undergrad or as a younger grad student. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well online learning fits into my schedule.

3. I now appreciate how well the courses are designed for effective learning.

While designing courses myself as an instructor, and now while taking classes as a student, I’ve appreciated the blend of two different forms of expertise that goes in to the development of online classes.

When each course is created, the content expert for the specific course is partnered with a professional instructional designer who works closely with the faculty member to, not only share the class material, but to do so in a way that truly engages adult learners. This blend of a professor with an instructional designer makes for a particularly effective learning experience.

When these two different professionals work together to create this “space” for learning, incredible content meets fantastic instruction.

I’ve learned a lot over the past few years while designing, teaching and now, taking online courses. I have to admit, that although they are different and that online education has a learning curve, I have experienced how effective, convenient and similar the online experience can be to face-to-face traditional instruction.

I’ve become a believer and a thankful student because of Saint Leo’s online programs!

What has made you a believer in online education?

Randall Woodard has been teaching in the Department of Philosophy, Theology and Religion at Saint Leo University for the past five years and loves the student-centered teaching environment and passion for learning that he finds at Saint Leo. Outside of the classroom, he serves as a taxi driver, maid and 1.5 star chef to his three wonderful kids. 

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Study Suggests US Health Security Research Not Balanced Enough To Meet Goals

Main Category: Aid / Disasters
Also Included In: Public Health;  Bio-terrorism / Terrorism
Article Date: 05 Dec 2012 - 1:00 PST Current ratings for:
Study Suggests US Health Security Research Not Balanced Enough To Meet Goals

Federal support for health security research is heavily weighted toward preparing for bioterrorism and other biological threats, providing significantly less funding for challenges such as monster storms or attacks with conventional bombs, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

The findings, published in the December issue of the journal Health Affairs, come from the first-ever inventory of national health security-related research funded by civilian agencies of the federal government.

Researchers say recent events such as Superstorm Sandy, tornadoes in the Midwest and major earthquakes around the world highlight the need to prepare the nation's health care system for a broad array of natural and manmade disasters.

"Although disaster preparedness requires active involvement of the private and public sectors, the federal government is the primary sponsor of the basic and applied health research needed to develop new technology and strategies to prepare for and respond to large-scale disasters," said the study's senior author, Dr. Art Kellermann, who holds the Paul O'Neill Alcoa Chair in Policy Analysis at RAND. "Our study suggests the current mix of federally-funded national health security research projects may not be ideally configured for achieving the broad preparedness goals that face our nation."

RAND researchers were asked by federal health officials to conduct a first-ever inventory of non-classified, civilian national health security research funded by the federal government. Military research and internal research conducted by the agencies themselves was not included.

Beginning in 2010, researchers canvassed seven non-defense agencies whose research addresses topics relevant to the objectives of the National Health Security Strategy, a plan completed in 2009 to guide efforts by the government and others to defend the nation from a large-scale public health threats, both natural and manmade.

The agencies surveyed by RAND researchers were the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate, the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation and the Veterans Health Administration.

The studies identified spanned a 13-year period, with most awarded between 2003 and 2010 when there was robust federal funding for health security research. The final list totaled 1,593 unique research projects, most of which were funded before the creation of the National Health Security Strategy.

More than 1,000 of the studies (66 percent) were directed toward biological threats, including bioterrorism, emerging infectious diseases, foodborne illness and pandemic influenza.

Fewer than 10 percent of the total pool of projects addressed natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes or floods. The remaining projects addressed threats that were chemical (8 percent), radiological (5 percent), nuclear (4 percent) or explosive (4 percent).

The existing research heavily emphasized basic laboratory research, a likely reflection of the large role of the research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. Far fewer studies were oriented toward translating basic research into actionable practice, or evaluating promising strategies and techniques to confirm their effectiveness.

RAND researchers say the rationale for the current mix of research projects is not clear. In the course of the project, they observed that each of the agencies studied determines its research priorities with little or no effort to coordinate their decisions with those of other agencies.

"The officials we spoke with were not only willing, but eager, to engage in cross-department information sharing to help the nation develop a more-coordinated and efficient approach to health security research," said Shoshana R. Shelton, the study's lead author and a project associate at RAND.

In order to get more bang for health security research spending, RAND researchers recommend agencies employ a risk-based approach to priority setting that takes into consideration the probability of a threat occurring, the magnitude of damage it could inflict and the availability of countermeasures to limit or reduce its consequences.

In addition, researchers recommend a voluntary process of information-sharing between agencies to improve coordination, and a shared approach to track the progress and results of research projects. This would dramatically improve future efforts to inventory health security research projects and ensure that findings quickly reach the field.

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
Visit our aid / disasters section for the latest news on this subject. Support for the study was provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Office of Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. Other authors of the study are Kathryn Connor, Lori Uscher-Pines, Francesca Pillemer and James Mullikin.
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