For gen­er­a­tions, young peo­ple have been giv­en the same ca­reer ad­vice—“Study hard. Get a de­gree. Find a good job”. A dis­cus­sion among our mem­bers has point­ed to what some say: For many of our par­ents, that ad­vice worked. A uni­ver­si­ty qual­i­fi­ca­tion of­ten led di­rect­ly to sta­ble em­ploy­ment, long-term ca­reer pro­gres­sion and fi­nan­cial se­cu­ri­ty, but the econ­o­my has changed.

Tech­nol­o­gy is trans­form­ing in­dus­tries faster than ever be­fore. Ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence is re­shap­ing the work­place. Busi­ness­es are hir­ing for skills, adapt­abil­i­ty, flex­i­bil­i­ty and prob­lem-solv­ing just as much as qual­i­fi­ca­tions. Yet, there is a per­cep­tion that we con­tin­ue giv­ing young peo­ple ca­reer ad­vice de­signed for an econ­o­my that may no longer ex­ists.

Per­haps that is why youth un­em­ploy­ment and un­der­em­ploy­ment re­main per­sis­tent chal­lenges, de­spite more grad­u­ates en­ter­ing the labour mar­ket every year. The is­sue ap­pears not that those de­grees have be­come less valu­able. Far from it! High­er ed­u­ca­tion re­mains one of the best in­vest­ments a young per­son can make. The prob­lem ap­pears to be that we have con­vinced too many stu­dents that earn­ing a de­gree is the fin­ish line, when in re­al­i­ty it is on­ly the start­ing point.

In­stead of ask­ing, “What de­gree should I study?” per­haps we should first ask, “What does the econ­o­my ac­tu­al­ly need?”

That sin­gle ques­tion has the po­ten­tial to re­shape not on­ly in­di­vid­ual ca­reers but al­so our na­tion­al con­ver­sa­tion on youth un­em­ploy­ment and un­der­em­ploy­ment. Young peo­ple to­day need to think dif­fer­ent­ly. They need to work back­wards. In­stead of be­gin­ning with a de­gree and hop­ing em­ploy­ment fol­lows, it may be pru­dent to be­gin by study­ing the econ­o­my. Which in­dus­tries are grow­ing? Which sec­tors are at­tract­ing in­vest­ment? Which skills are em­ploy­ers de­mand­ing? What prob­lems are busi­ness­es try­ing to solve?

On­ly then should they de­ter­mine which qual­i­fi­ca­tions, cer­ti­fi­ca­tions and prac­ti­cal ex­pe­ri­ences will best pre­pare them to solve those prob­lems. This is re­ferred to as the Re­verse Ca­reer Mod­el. Rather than fol­low­ing the tra­di­tion­al path­way of De­gree → Grad­u­ate → Job → Ex­pe­ri­ence → Ca­reer, to­day’s stu­dents may want to con­sid­er a dif­fer­ent ap­proach: Study the Econ­o­my → Iden­ti­fy Op­por­tu­ni­ties → De­vel­op Skills → Gain Ex­po­sure → Build a Port­fo­lio → Earn Qual­i­fi­ca­tions → Con­tin­ue Up­skilling → Grow Your Ca­reer.

No­tice that the de­gree has not dis­ap­peared. It has sim­ply be­come one part of a broad­er strat­e­gy. Qual­i­fi­ca­tions alone no longer dis­tin­guish grad­u­ates. Every year more stu­dents earn bach­e­lor’s and mas­ter’s de­grees, yet com­pe­ti­tion con­tin­ues to in­crease. The ques­tion is no longer sim­ply, “What did you study?” Rather, in­creas­ing­ly, em­ploy­ers are ask­ing, “What can you do?”

Many or­gan­i­sa­tions now look be­yond aca­d­e­m­ic tran­scripts. They want grad­u­ates who com­mu­ni­cate pro­fes­sion­al­ly, solve prob­lems, analyse in­for­ma­tion, adapt quick­ly, high­ly flex­i­ble, man­age projects, em­brace tech­nol­o­gy and con­tin­ue learn­ing long af­ter grad­u­a­tion. Dig­i­tal lit­er­a­cy, com­mer­cial aware­ness, crit­i­cal think­ing and the re­spon­si­ble use of ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence are al­so rapid­ly be­com­ing es­sen­tial work­place skills.

Most im­por­tant­ly, em­ploy­ers want ev­i­dence. This brings us to one of the great­est frus­tra­tions ex­pressed by grad­u­ates: “Every job re­quires ex­pe­ri­ence.” It is un­der­stand­able that em­ploy­ers ask for ex­pe­ri­ence. How­ev­er, in to­day’s econ­o­my, it may be a good time to place greater val­ue on ex­po­sure. Ex­pe­ri­ence tells you how long some­one has done a job. Ex­po­sure tells you how much they have learned. A can­di­date may have few­er years in the work­force but greater ex­po­sure to solv­ing prob­lems, work­ing across in­dus­tries, man­ag­ing projects, em­brac­ing tech­nol­o­gy and adapt­ing to change. Ex­pe­ri­ence tells you where some­one has been. Ex­po­sure tells you what they are ca­pa­ble of be­com­ing. In to­day’s econ­o­my, that may be the bet­ter pre­dic­tor of fu­ture per­for­mance. This is where young peo­ple need to stop wait­ing for op­por­tu­ni­ties and be­gin cre­at­ing them.

One of the best ways to over­come the ex­pe­ri­ence bar­ri­er is to gain prac­ti­cal ex­po­sure be­fore grad­u­a­tion. Trinidad and To­ba­go’s mi­cro, small and medi­um-sized en­ter­pris­es face chal­lenges every day. Many needs help im­prov­ing op­er­a­tions, strength­en­ing mar­ket­ing, im­ple­ment­ing tech­nol­o­gy or man­ag­ing projects. Stu­dents should not un­der­es­ti­mate the val­ue of ap­proach­ing these busi­ness­es and ask­ing a sim­ple ques­tion: “What prob­lem are you try­ing to solve, and how may I help?”

Whether study­ing busi­ness, in­for­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy, com­mu­ni­ca­tions, en­gi­neer­ing, en­vi­ron­men­tal man­age­ment, ac­count­ing or an­oth­er dis­ci­pline, there is al­most al­ways an op­por­tu­ni­ty to ap­ply class­room knowl­edge to re­al-world chal­lenges. This might in­volve start­ing a small busi­ness, free­lanc­ing, of­fer­ing project-based ser­vices, con­duct­ing re­search, build­ing a dig­i­tal port­fo­lio or col­lab­o­rat­ing with oth­er stu­dents to solve prac­ti­cal prob­lems. Ex­pe­ri­ence should no longer be­gin af­ter grad­u­a­tion. It should be­gin while you are still learn­ing.

Ca­reers are al­so rarely lin­ear. Many grad­u­ates be­lieve their de­gree per­ma­nent­ly de­fines their fu­ture. In re­al­i­ty, most ca­reers evolve over time. A busi­ness grad­u­ate may lat­er spe­cialise in busi­ness an­a­lyt­ics, project man­age­ment or en­tre­pre­neur­ship. A com­mu­ni­ca­tions grad­u­ate may move in­to pub­lic pol­i­cy or cor­po­rate af­fairs. En­vi­ron­men­tal grad­u­ates may piv­ot in­to sus­tain­abil­i­ty, agri­cul­ture, tourism, re­new­able en­er­gy or ESG re­port­ing. The de­gree pro­vides the foun­da­tion. Life­long learn­ing builds the struc­ture.

Where flex­i­bil­i­ty ex­ists, stu­dents should de­vel­op broad, trans­fer­able ca­pa­bil­i­ties be­fore spe­cial­is­ing through ex­pe­ri­ence, cer­ti­fi­ca­tions or post­grad­u­ate ed­u­ca­tion. This is like­ly to cre­ate greater re­silience in a labour mar­ket that con­tin­ues to evolve.

Gov­ern­ment, ed­u­ca­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions and em­ploy­ers all have im­por­tant roles to play. Gov­ern­ment must con­tin­ue align­ing work­force plan­ning with na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment pri­or­i­ties. Ed­u­ca­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions must strength­en part­ner­ships with in­dus­try, while em­ploy­ers should com­mu­ni­cate more clear­ly the skills they re­quire. How­ev­er, no in­sti­tu­tion has a greater re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for your ca­reer than you do.

To­day’s stu­dents have ac­cess to labour mar­ket da­ta, on­line learn­ing plat­forms, pro­fes­sion­al cer­ti­fi­ca­tions, ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence tools and glob­al in­dus­try in­sights that pre­vi­ous gen­er­a­tions could scarce­ly imag­ine. The in­for­ma­tion is avail­able. The chal­lenge is choos­ing to use it.

The fu­ture will not be­long sim­ply to those with the high­est qual­i­fi­ca­tions. It will be­long to those who re­main cu­ri­ous, adapt­able and com­mit­ted to con­tin­u­ous learn­ing.

Mem­bers are of the view that suc­cess is no longer mea­sured sole­ly by se­cur­ing a job af­ter grad­u­a­tion. But it is mea­sured by your abil­i­ty to cre­ate val­ue, solve prob­lems, adapt to change and re­main rel­e­vant as in­dus­tries evolve.

There­fore, be­fore choos­ing your de­gree, con­sid­er a study of the econ­o­my. Un­der­stand where op­por­tu­ni­ties may be emerg­ing. Iden­ti­fy the prob­lems busi­ness­es need solved.

Build prac­ti­cal ex­po­sure be­fore you grad­u­ate. Con­tin­ue de­vel­op­ing your skills through­out your ca­reer.

Your de­gree may open the first door. The de­ci­sions you make be­fore, dur­ing and af­ter uni­ver­si­ty will de­ter­mine how many more doors open af­ter that.