The new super breed of uni students

Author: Youth 2 Youth

The new super breed of uni students

University has traditionally been seen as a place that equips students with the skills and knowledge to gain employment. Overtime, this has meant meeting the needs of employers by creating more practical and workplace oriented courses that now show little distinction from technical courses like those at TAFE. But though students are graduating with more relevant skills, they are also now aware of the insecure economic environment that is the workplace of today. What is now emerging is a generation of tertiary educated young people that to tackle their business destiny in new ways.

Young people today can no longer rely on companies to provide them with stable employment. The turbulence of the world's economic environment is forcing the young workforce to become increasingly self-reliant and adaptive. Young people aren't working for employers so much as they are working on themselves - employment is now seen as a way of getting a variety of work experiences that assist you develop as a professional, rather than loyalty and service to one organisation. Young people are also seeking a diversity of work situations as well as self-fulfilment in their jobs. This, combined with tertiary education that focuses as much on innovation now than it does on theory, has created a rapidly emerging breed of 'portfolio workers' - workers who add skills to their life portfolio rather than stick around 50 years in an organisation for their gold watch!

Australian business and government have been gradually recognising the benefits of combining industry partnerships with education over the past ten years in order to bring young people back into the corporate fold. Already we are witnessing the introduction of vocational education and training (VET) schemes into schools. Yet these programs, whilst creating valuable business links with young people, fail to actively encourage youth to consider going into business for themselves as a viable alternative to employment. And for those young people that already have the entrepreneurial spirit, existing business development and advisory services seem irrelevant, intimidating and boring. The challenges faced by young people in business today call for assistance and support that is innovative, intelligent and engaging (that's where Youth 2 Youth comes in!!).

Uni students now must make a decision about what kind of worker they are, rather than what job they want. Are you a portfolio worker - shifting from job to job while working on your skills? Are you a 9 to 5 worker - satisfied with the more traditional way of working? Or are you a young entrepreneur?

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