College students and alumni who completed much of their degrees remotely during the pandemic proved themselves to be uniquely adaptable and committed. Now many fear their lack of hands-on learning has left them unprepared for their future career. 

Rachel Yetso, a communications and media studies major and summer 2022 graduate, is one of a growing number of pandemic degree earners who share this concern. Yetso stated, “I feel less prepared to enter the work world in person…I definitely feel further behind than other college graduates who didn’t experience online learning.” 

But while it’s undeniable that skills taught in certain courses and majors translated to an online learning format better than others, students and employers alike should still view these degrees as indicative of job qualification and readiness. 

According to Becky Sandoval Young, SSU’s career advisor and personal relations specialist, “Students are struggling with their self-confidence…but the reality is that most employers are looking for eight main skills.” 

The desirable skills Young referenced include critical thinking, oral and written communication, teamwork, digital technology, leadership, professionalism and work ethic, career management and global and intercultural fluency. 

“Students still learned these skills during online learning, it just looked different,” Young stated. “Our role is to help them understand their skills and translate them for employers.”

Young did acknowledge that for some, a few knowledge gaps may exist that will require some post-graduation support to fill in. “We know those students in science classes that benefit from hands-on experiences have less experience than the prior alumni.” 

Rachel Donham, a biology professor at SSU, agreed that her department was heavily impacted by remote learning, but stressed that employers should be compassionate and accommodating, since they themselves were forced to learn many new skills during this period. Donham stated, “I think employers likely had to reorganize, change common practices and adopt new policies as the pandemic progressed. Given this, I would hope they have a solid understanding that there may need to be a bit more hands-on training with a new hire.”

For Addison Smith, a communications and media studies major who graduated this Spring, online courses were both a “blessing and a curse.” “[Remote learning] really helped me focus on academics since I wasn’t going anywhere, but I also feel as if it didn’t hammer certain principles in my head as much as I would’ve liked,” Smith stated. 

Some alumni, like Smith, have also had to supplement their education after the fact. “I would say I feel a bit less prepared, but I’ve taken steps since graduation to ensure I’m more up to speed with everything, like job searches and so on,” he stated.

Young added that her department can help with these sorts of steps, stating, “There are many ways for students to gain hands-on experience post-graduation to enhance their skills, and they can connect with the career center to figure out which path is best for them.”

She also believes that the concerns shared by students like Yetso and Smith are somewhat universal. “This isn’t new, students have always felt that they are not as prepared as they should be when entering the workforce,” she stated. 

Regardless, the data does show a substantial decline in college enrollment during and since the height of COVID-19, likely driven at least in part by student skepticism about the value of a degree earned partially online. According to numbers gathered this Spring by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, “…the undergraduate student body is now 9.4 percent, or nearly 1.4 million students smaller than before the pandemic.”

The full extent to which online learning will impact student and alumni career outcomes remains to be seen. For now, it’s important for pandemic degree earners to do their best to fill in any gaps that they feel a partially remote education may have left, and for employers to be considerate and nurturing when hiring and training them.