你能在大学掌握就业能力吗?
当今社会年轻人的就业问题非常严峻，就业能力和软技术发展等问题由此变得更为重要，关于大学等教育形式怎样才能提高学生就业能力的话题也讨论得越加激烈。那么什么是就业能力?高等教育真的能提高学生的就业能力吗?
To quote Monika Kosinska, secretary-general of the European Public Health Alliance, “Young people today are entering the most difficult labor market in decades, with potentially tragic consequences for their lives and futures.” With this in mind, the questions of employability, soft skills development and skills employers look for have become increasingly important, and has especially been discussed in the context of how universities and other education providers can better prepare students for a life of fulfilling employment. But just what is employability, and is it really something higher education can provide?
据欧洲公共健康联盟秘书长Monika Kosinska所言，当今社会年轻人的就业问题非常严峻，就业能力和软技术发展等问题由此变得更为重要，关于大学等教育形式怎样才能提高学生就业能力的话题也讨论得越加激烈。那么什么是就业能力?高等教育真的能提高学生的就业能力吗?
What is employability?
These were some of the main questions up for discussion at the European Students Convention (ESC27) in Brussels a few weeks ago, with many of the early talks in particular attempting to set out some basic definitions. When addressing the question “what is employability?” there was general agreement that this term means more than just the state of being employed. Rather, it encompasses a combination of personal, social and economic factors that combine to give a greater or lesser likelihood of an individual being able to secure and maintain employment.Ivana Juraga, project officer at the European University Association (EUA), provided a reasonably succinct definition of employability as: “The ability to search for a relevant job, to perform competently in your workplace, and to be a lifelong learner.”
什么是就业能力?
就业能力不仅代表能够找到工作，它还意味着把工作做好并在岗位上长久稳定下来的能力。欧洲大学协会的项目主主任Ivana Juraga为这个术语提供了一个合理的解释：“就业能力就是找到一个与自己专业或兴趣相关的工作，在工作中表现出色，并能够通过不断的学习提高自己。”
Can university increase your employability?
With these multi-faceted definitions of employability in place, discussions turned to the question of the role tertiary education providers can play in helping individuals and societies attain higher levels of employability. Two main ways in which universities could contribute were highlighted: by providing courses well-matched to industry demand, and by focusing on the development of longer-term employability skills.While no one challenged the importance of this first aspect, convention attendees were overall more inclined to focus on the second, that of soft skills development. This was in part due to recognition of the difficulties involved in matching course provision to industry demand, especially in a world where rapid change is increasingly the norm for many professional sectors. It also reflected a feeling, particularly among student representatives, that “soft skills” remain relatively undervalued both by employers and universities.The good news is that attending university is likely to increase your overall employment prospects. Studies from around the world have shown that, while all groups have been affected by the recession and by poor employment rates, those with higher levels of education still have better employment and earnings prospects in almost all countries.
大学能提高你的就业能力吗?
大学提高学生就业能力的方式主要有两种：开设与市场需求相呼应的课程并注重培养就职技能。第一种方式是毋庸置疑的，然而第二种，也就是关于软技能的重要性在大学里依然没有得到很好体现。软技能就是个人的社交礼仪、友好程度、沟通能力以及处理人际关系的乐观态度。然而大学还是能够提升人的就业希望。研究表明，尽管经济危机和就业率低会影响所有群体，但接受过高等教育的人还是有更好的就业前景。
For many professional roles, it’s easy to see how a degree provides the necessary employability skills; for example, if you want to be a medical doctor, an architect or an engineer, you will learn the necessary knowledge and skills at university. In other cases, the link between university and employability skills is not so obvious, but it is still there.Tia Loukkola, director of the Institutional Development Unit at the European University Association, gave a good example of this. Recalling her time as a modern languages student, she said she couldn’t understand the point of hours spent practising the language by writing up summaries of longer texts – but that those soft skills proved extremely useful a few years later, when her job required her to quickly summarize long and complex policy documents.
So the short answer to this question is yes: university can improve your employability, in ways that may be very obvious or only become clear later in life. When choosing a course, you may want to think about the specific role it will prepare you for, but don’t worry if you don’t know yet what you want to do, or you can’t see how your favored subject will prepare you for the workplace. Especially if you study at a university where independent study and thought are supported, you’ll be developing all kinds of the skills employers look for and which are useful in many professional roles without even realizing it.
一个好的文凭在很多职业中都是必需的。例如，如果你想成为医生、建筑师或工程师，你就必须在大学学习有关的知识和技能。也有些人在大学学习的知识与就业能力之间的关系不是那么明显，但它们之间仍然有联系。比如欧洲大学协会的学院发展部主任Tia Loukkola回忆道，她在大学主修“现代语言”时，不知道花大把的时间总结各种长篇课文到底有什么意义，但后来她发现那对自己的职业生涯帮助很大，因为她的工作就是要总结大量长而复杂的政策文件。
所以这个问题的答案是肯定的：大学能提高你的就业能力，只是有时效果很明显而有时这种效果要以后才能呈现。
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