Introduction
One significant reason why college students struggle in their learning process is because of the need to ensure that they achieve the relevant knowledge that will fit with the needs for their future careers. This is struggling to ensure that they align their knowledge with the needs of the industry. One fundamental reason for this is that many students would like to get employment immediately they clear their college education. One sure way of achieving this is to have knowledge that is sought after by many organizations. This is shown during the interview process. They are required to show their competence through the interview process. College students struggle in order to ensure that the knowledge they get in college should be aligned with the requirements of the interviewers. This is an important process that many students want to ensure they get it right while they are in college. Most students struggle to learn relevant knowledge that will be needed as they work. They will struggle to understand the processes that re practiced in organizations that they anticipate to work with. Most of this will find students struggling to research about what is needed and the current trends that are required in the workplace. When they are in their industrial attachment, or field attachment, or teaching practice, college students will struggle to learn the technology that is used in these organizations (Begel, and Beth 63).
With the fast moving world of technology, there are many things that students will want to keep pace with in their process of learning. College students struggle to understand the technology trends of their future careers. What makes students struggle is because of the fact that they have to appear to be relevant in the knowledge they claim to possess. Most organizations will want to ensure that they get recruits with the relevant skills that are in tandem with the latest technologies they have implemented. Students will struggle to ensure that apart from the knowledge they are taught in class, they have professional knowledge that is being sought in their colleges. They have to struggle and put in a lot of effort to ensure that they understand both class work and industrial knowledge. This is why most students will struggle to have technologies and business processes that are practiced in most organizations (Evans, Nancy J., et al 72).
Another reason why college students struggle is the inappropriateness of most curricula of many colleges. Most colleges have not aligned their courses with the needs of the job market. There is a need to align and update what is being taught in colleges so that it follows what the job market want from the students. Because this has not been done by many colleges, it has forced many students to struggle individually. They will have to ensure that what the curriculum does not cover is compensated with their research and struggle. This makes the learning of these students hectic, to say the least. Most college students have had to pay the price of the lack of up-to-date curriculum in the colleges through struggling to get the right material to learn. Students struggle to ensure that what the curriculum does not offer is obtained though struggling. Most colleges use curricula that worked long time ago. There is no active research that is done to understand the knowledge and skills that students will need to learn in order to be relevant in their future careers. This has forced the students to do the research on their own. This is a difficult process for the students because they will have to understand the needs of the industry. This requires extensive research from the colleges. Students have been forced to carry this research on their own. This makes students struggle in getting what the organizations want. They will have to look for expertise working in the organizations and ask them what they will have to learn in order to be relevant in the job market (Kuh, George D., et al. 62).
Another reason why college students struggle to align their knowledge with the job market that there are many college graduates who are struggling to get the same employment. There is competition in the job market and students will need to ensure that they stand out of the crowd. This way, they will be favored. College students will, therefore, have to struggle to ensure that they come out better and with better knowledge of the job market. They will have to struggle in order to ensure they are better than the college graduates they are competing together in the market. The only way that this can be achieved is through aligning skills with what the job market wants. Students will do the hard work of ensuing that the knowledge they possess is better than the rest of the crowd.
Another reason why college students struggle to get relevant knowledge while studying is the lack of resources in most colleges. While most colleges do not have an up-to-date curriculum, they also lack the resources that students can use. This is evident with many disciplines where students have to go with their own resources. Many books that are found in many colleges do not have current information that is backed up with research. In these situations, students will be required to struggle to get the right information and skills. They will have to look for their resources to use while learning. This way, they will get the relevant information that is required in the job market. Some resources are way too expensive for the students. Most students are forced to purchase these resources using their money. They will have to struggle to ensure that they have the money that will be used to purchase the resources. This is an area where students have struggled in the quest to get the resources that have the relevant information that is required in the job market. This could not have been the case if the colleges were well equipped with relevant learning material (Silva 92).
In conclusion, the struggle by college students to ensure that their knowledge align with the skills needed in the job market is real. Many students want to have the necessary skills that will enable them have competitive advantage over their competitors in the job market. This is only achieved through the need to struggle to align their skills with the skills of the job market.
Works Cited
Begel, Andrew, and Beth Simon. "Struggles of new college graduates in their first software development job." ACM SIGCSE Bulletin. Vol. 40. No. 1. ACM, 2008.
Evans, Nancy J., Deanna S. Forney, Florence M. Guido, Lori D. Patton, and Kristen A. Renn. Student development in college: Theory, research, and practice. John Wiley & Sons, 2009.
Kuh, George D., Jillian Kinzie, John H. Schuh, and Elizabeth J. Whitt. Student success in college: Creating conditions that matter. John Wiley & Sons, 2010.
Silva, Elena. "Measuring skills for the 21st century." Education Sector Reports11 (2008).
