Episode 73

The Blindspot Holding Back Higher Ed’s Future

Brief description of the episode

What does it take to put career services at the center of the college experience? Christine Cruz‑Vergara, Chief Education Strategy Officer at Handshake, joins Eric Stano to unpack why higher ed’s value is under pressure, what today’s students expect, and how campuses can respond to close the trust‑usage gap. Christine shares what Handshake is seeing in student behavior and pragmatic ways to integrate GenAI across disciplines.

Key Takeaways:

- Elevate career services’ role in decision-making to align with institutional culture.
- Appoint a leader who is politically savvy, faculty-credible, externally focused, and supported by a strong operations staff.
- Use career platforms and workforce data as feedback loops for programs, curricula, and employer outreach.
- Keep career education out of crisis‑oriented clusters so the work remains proactive rather than buried.
- Put guidance and resources in the digital channels students already use.
- Market exploration support so students don’t feel they need all the answers before seeking help.
- Model networking by making warm introductions and teaching the process along the way.
- Expand pathways through internships, employer projects, alumni, and tech partnerships.
- Align staff time and programs around the simple goal: helping students get good jobs.
- Make work-based learning part of the curriculum through required internships, capstones, or live employer projects.
- Develop AI literacy for all students, pairing domain expertise with practical AI tools and guidance.
- Teach durable skills like communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and critical thinking alongside technical competencies like GenAI.
- Help students articulate skills gained from projects through advising that connects experiences to clear statements of impact and evidence.
- Link coursework to real-world needs by integrating employer partnerships and using cross-sector data to guide program design.
- Frame AI as a creative and analytical partner that augments domain expertise, not replaces it.
- Pilot GenAI degrees like ASU or embed discipline-specific AI experts like Emory to guide faculty and students.
- Use peer faculty advisors with comparable credentials to reduce adoption friction and maintain standards.
- Align instruction and advising with employer demand, reflected in the surge of job postings mentioning GenAI.

The Blindspot Holding Back Higher Ed’s Future

Brief description of the episode

Key Takeaways:

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