If you\u2019re the parent of a teen who is thinking about college, it\u2019s likely you\u2019re already wondering: Will your kid be employable after they graduate?<\/p>\n
And the proliferation of AI is probably a big part of your concern, according to a new national survey of 618 parents or guardians of U.S. high school students from the College Guidance Network, a virtual counseling tool, which found parents are worried about AI\u2019s effect on their young adult\u2019s future employability.<\/p>\n
More than half of respondents, in fact, said they feel \u201cvery concerned\u201d or \u201csomewhat concerned\u201d about the AI impact on their teen\u2019s future job prospects. A whopping 89% of parents expressed concern about traditional jobs existing at all in five years. And while there is some hopefulness \u2014 44.1% believe that AI will create as many new jobs for grads as it eliminates \u2014 52% of the parents believe there will be fewer options in the job market in five years.When asked \u201cWhat three words best capture how you feel about the AI-driven future your teen will be entering into?\u201d anxiety dominated, as the top five feelings were: \u201cuncertain\/uncertainty,\u201d \u201cworried\/worrisome,\u201d \u201cconcerned\/concern,\u201d and \u201ccautious,\u201d while a ray of hope in the form of \u201chopeful\u201d was in slot No. 5.<\/p>\n
More than half of teens already use AI for schoolwork while three in 10 use AI chatbots daily, according to recent data from Pew Research, while the College Guidance Network found 43% of teens were using AI daily. Still, parents mostly described the AI attitude of their teens as \u201cuncertain\u201d and \u201ccautious\u201d more than anything else \u2014 though some were \u201coptimistic\u201d and \u201cexcited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Almost all respondents felt it was important for colleges to teach students how to understand and work alongside AI, with 31.2% calling it \u201cessential,\u201d 34.9% saying it\u2019s \u201cvery important,\u201d and 27.6% calling it \u201csomewhat important,\u201d with only 6.3% saying AI proficiency in college is not important at all.<\/p>\n
So, what does it all mean regarding college and a teen\u2019s future?<\/p>\n
Despite beliefs that applications to college \u2014 beleaguered by political and economic woes \u2014 are dropping, the data says otherwise: \u201cCollege tuition has become more affordable in recent years. The economic return on a bachelor\u2019s degree has stopped growing but remains near historic highs,\u201d reported Chalkbeat in November. \u201cAfter a post-pandemic dip, four-year college enrollment has almost fully recovered to near-record levels.\u201d <\/p>\n
Still, \u201cthe rising cost of college and the uncertainty of the future of traditional jobs have caused families to evaluate all the options,\u201d notes the report. \u201cWhen asked what alternatives they might pursue if traditional college pathways, parents demonstrated openness to other routes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The leading alternative was a low-cost community college with career and technical training courses (49.4%), followed by apprenticeship programs and direct to workforce, which \u201care increasingly being seen as viable options, especially if they could offer faster entry into stable employment in an uncertain time.\u201d<\/p>\n
This does not signal the end of college as the predominant pathway after high school, but it does suggest that families are diversifying their mental models of value, and how they define success. The future may be less about a single \u201cright path\u201d and more about flexible options and ability to adapt. Families may be looking to reduce their financial risk while increasing student future employability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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