The landscape of higher education is shifting faster than ever, and students are questioning whether their degrees truly prepare them for life after graduation. Employers continue to emphasize skills-based hiring, yet many graduates still struggle to demonstrate the very competencies that companies seek. At the same time, rising tuition costs and the looming enrollment cliff are forcing colleges to prove their value more than ever before.
Our State of Higher Ed 2025 report digs into this tension — uncovering what students believe they’re learning, what employers expect, and where the two perspectives don’t align. The findings highlight a clear opportunity for colleges to bridge the gap with more intentional career preparation and experiential learning.
A PDF version of this report is also available to download for free. Get your copy here.
Understanding how higher education prepares students for a skills-based workforce
Students may not understand the importance of certain soft skills in the workplace. For example, only 51.5% of undergraduates identified problem-solving as a critical soft skill.1
88.3% of employers want job candidates to have problem-solving skills.2
Students often do not understand how to communicate their soft skills to employers, such as problem-solving, communication, and collaboration. Internships help students refine soft skills and adapt them to a skills-based workplace.
95.9% of undergraduates say they learned soft skills from an internship.1
Students want more career preparation as part of their college degrees, particularly hands-on learning and skills-based training. Higher ed can emphasize the importance of internships for providing these opportunities and encourage more hands-on learning in the classroom.
62% of students and recent graduates want their school to offer more career preparation or career-focused courses.1
According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), nearly two-thirds of employers hire based on skill.3
The majority of Americans see immense value in higher education — 73% of Americans say higher education still offers a good ROI.4 In one study, 2.9 million graduates averaged a 10% rate of return on their college degrees.5 However, our recent study, The State of Higher Ed 2025, found that students want more career-focused courses that teach tangible skills — and employers do, too.
While colleges and universities have focused on teaching career-based soft skills, students still struggle to understand how to communicate them on their résumés or in job interviews. Meanwhile, employers are looking for well-rounded candidates with skills not covered in core curricula, such as listening skills in healthcare6 or communication skills in engineering.7
As we head toward the inevitable enrollment cliff,8 colleges will compete for a smaller pool of students, which may also require a shift in admissions marketing and curriculum and career services. The students in our survey expect career preparedness as part of their undergraduate degrees. They want to learn skills that will help them in their careers. However, their responses indicate that they’re learning the right skills to be attractive to employers, but aren’t getting enough coaching to demonstrate their skills when job hunting.
This paper explores the gap between what students are learning and what they’re demonstrating on the job market. Our findings suggest that experiential learning, particularly from internships, is still the best way for students to learn soft skills like collaboration, communication, and problem-solving. Moreover, these skills can be applied to career development and interview preparedness, while equipping students to learn new technical skills.
The National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS) conducted a study to understand better whether students are being prepared for the modern workplace. A total of 3,790 undergraduate students, graduate students, recent college graduates, and administrators answered questions to reveal this growing skills gap between college and employment.
Students expect career preparation as part of their college education.
Every cohort — parents, college administrators, students, and employers — wants career-ready students who demonstrate critical thinking and problem-solving.9 So it’s no surprise that the undergraduates in our survey prefer experiential learning and career-focused courses.
62% of students and recent graduates want more career resources.1
60.2% of undergraduates want more career preparation.1
Students attend college to pursue a degree or to learn specific, career-based skills.1
93.7% – graduate students
82.7% – undergraduates
Learning outcomes still outweigh the college experience.1
48% - Get a degree
41% - Learn skills for career
10% - The college experience
1% - Other
87.2% of undergrads feel prepared for the workplace.1
51.5% of undergraduates identified problem-solving as a critical soft skill.1
88.3% of employers want job candidates to have problem-solving skills.2
According to NACE, employers are more focused than ever on skills-based hiring.6 The students in our survey expect higher education to prepare them for careers. The majority said they feel prepared in key skills areas, but their responses also revealed a gap between skills they think are important and what recent graduates say are expected on the job. This suggests colleges are teaching the right skills but aren’t sufficiently helping students demonstrate those skills to employers.
“No matter what department they're from or what major they're in, students want to understand the tools and technologies that are being used in their industry right now.” – Jennifer Braddock, Ph.D., director of product delivery and facilitation at NSLS.
It’s clear colleges heard the feedback on the importance of soft skills. Now, students need guidance on demonstrating and communicating those skills.
The good news is that students are learning soft skills like collaboration, communication, and a strong work ethic.1 These crucial soft skills are most often taught via career-focused, experiential learning or on-the-job experience and internships.
Students also understand the importance of soft skills in the modern workplace, but they disagree with employers on which are the most important.
Employers – Problem-solving, teamwork, communication6, 10
Students – Time management, decision-making, work ethic1
Undergraduates – Time management
Graduate students – Work ethic
Recent graduates – Work ethic
Administrators – Collaboration
72% of undergraduates say employers expect a wide range of skills.1
76.7% Passion
21.7% Earning potential
1.6% Undeclared
Why this matters
Undergrads who choose their majors based on passion may not fully understand the impact on their future earning potential.
According to NACE, problem-solving is the top skill employers seek.6 More than half of the undergraduates in our survey understand the importance of critical thinking. However, that figure jumps significantly among cohorts with bachelor’s degrees — including employers.
51.5% of undergraduates
76.6% of graduate students
83.4% of recent graduates and administrators
This data suggests that as students work toward their degree, they learn more about the importance of problem-solving. And they most often learn how to demonstrate these skills through an internship. Of the students in our survey who had an internship, the majority said it helped them learn soft skills and prepare for their careers.
65.2% of students say they learned decision-making skills during an internship.
95.6% of students say their internship prepared them for a career.
Students who participate in internships build stronger professional networks
80% of students credit their internship for expanding their network.11
Kevin Lovelace, Ph.D., senior lecturer with the College of Business (Management & Organizations) at Sacramento State University, uses service learning projects to equip his business students with practical skills like problem-solving. Students work under a DBA for Lovelace’s consulting company. They communicate with clients, develop ideas, and solve real-world business problems. While he supports them, Lovelace emphasizes letting students fail and succeed independently. Grades are based on effort and whether ideas support clients — rather than business outcomes. He says this format changes the game for many students. They walk away with practical experience that they can add to their résumé.
“Students want to be able to apply what they're learning. If we're teaching a subject that doesn't apply directly to a career, how can we shape it so they can see it as a thought experiment for a future application?” – Kevin Lovelace, Ph.D.
Workplaces are becoming more and more collaborative — yes, even remote work. For this reason, companies have shifted the way they track productivity.12 Teamwork and collaboration play a stronger role in workplace success and improve the quality of work by 73%.13
According to Forbes, employers want leaders to be collaborative and willing to learn.14 When teamwork is removed from the soft skills equation, students miss out on opportunities to learn from peers and leaders, further inhibiting their growth in other skills areas like communication and problem-solving.
“We don't want to marginalize people because then we lose out on ideas. So I haven’t allowed my students to work independently for a long time.” – Kevin Lovelace, Ph.D., senior lecturer, College of Business (Management & Organizations), Sacramento State University.
Students in our survey seem to understand the deep connection between teamwork and career preparedness, with 61.9% of undergraduates saying employers want collaboration skills. Unsurprisingly, 68.4% of students and graduates who participated in an internship say it prepared them to work as part of a team.1
For remote and hybrid teams, collaboration isn’t just a soft skill. It requires technical knowledge as well. Jennifer Braddock, Ph.D., director of product delivery and facilitation at NSLS, uses tools like Asana and Slack in her classroom to teach students how to work cross-functionally in a business setting. “I’m using those tools professionally, so I’m able to upskill students in those ways,” she says.
More than half of undergrads feel confident they are, though more than one-third feel only “somewhat” prepared, suggesting there’s more colleges can do to prepare them.1
51.5% “Very much so”
35.7% “Somewhat”
Communication skills are vital in nearly every discipline,15 but things have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic. Braddock says her students felt Zoom fatigue even more keenly than working adults, and they crave face-to-face interaction. Despite spending hours on video calls, many simply listened with their cameras off. She adds that her students aren’t quite sure how to engage on-screen professionally, often asking for help learning on-camera communication skills.
“I think that’s a huge gap that students in the last three to four years have been struggling with — the absolute stress of knowing they’re going to have to do a video interview,” Braddock says.
So Lovelace and Braddock teach modern communication platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack, but they don’t view them as technical skills; they’re soft skills requiring technology.
Students in our survey placed a higher emphasis on passive soft skills rather than more active leadership-focused skills. This suggests they consider the workplace an extension of the classroom, where listening may be emphasized more than other communication skills. That’s why Braddock teaches engineering students how to engage with each other using platforms like Figma and Mural — software many students don’t see until they enter the workplace, “I don’t necessarily care that my team comes in with this massive skill set,” Braddock says. “I want them to be able to listen and pick up a skill that I’m teaching them and be able to run with it.”
And that aligns with what employers want. Communication is the single most sought-after skill for engineers,16 a field where soft skills may be seen as less important.17
Regardless of level of education, Americans value on-the-job training.18 One way to ensure students get it is to help them find internships. Students with paid internships on their résumés get more job offers after graduation and earn higher starting salaries than their counterparts.19 Even in fields with a strong emphasis on technical skills, teamwork, problem-solving, and communication help graduates get promoted 13% faster.20
Undergraduates – 95.9% said yes
Graduate students – 94.9% said yes
Recent graduates – 83.2% said yes
Communication
Collaboration
Time management
Decision-making
Do students have enough internship opportunities?1
In our survey, 52.5% of degree-earners who had an internship had help from their college or university, and 62.4% of administrators say their students have a lot of internship opportunities.
Unfortunately, most students and recent graduates say they haven’t had an internship. Only 17.2% of undergraduates say they’ve participated in one. In contrast, 28.9% of graduate students and recent graduates had internships. We saw a similar disparity between undergraduate and post-graduate responses in which soft skills they believe employers want. This seems to suggest that internships may also have an impact on their perception.
Students need more opportunities to learn from professionals in their field.
Undergraduates prefer to receive a college education from professors in a traditional, in-person environment rather than remotely. However, they turn to videos (e.g., YouTube, TikTok) and career professionals when learning new skills.1
73.2% – Experts
22.4% – Professors
2.9% – Masterclass celebrities
1.5% – Podcasters
It’s clear that students see the value of higher education, but they want career preparation in addition to academic theory and research. The good news is colleges have plenty of opportunities to include skills-based learning in undergraduate curricula — without sacrificing traditional learning methods like theoretical discussion and foundational principles.
Lovelace and Braddock suggest finding ways to make connections between theory and real-world application — using both experiential learning and traditional pedagogical methods.
“Students want to know that they're learning something they can apply. I use an example of when I was pitching an idea to a C-suite group and my PowerPoint didn't work. And that can help articulate the importance of outlining and practicing your presentation.” – Kevin Lovelace, Ph.D., senior lecturer, College of Business (Management & Organizations), Sacramento State University.
“We need good research to move our fields forward; industries depend on that research. But we also need lecturers and teaching professors for their practical experience.” – Jennifer Braddock, Ph.D., director of product delivery and facilitation at NSLS.
67.3% of graduate students see their professors as career-minded.
94% of students say faculty and administration care about their career success.
Colleges have a unique opportunity to prepare students for the modern workplace.
As we face the pending enrollment cliff11 and a shifting public perception of higher education, expect substantial challenges in the coming years. The cost-to-value ratio will be the deciding factor for many families.
62% of all students say college is preparing them for financial stability.
83.8% of undergraduates believe they’re getting their money’s worth.
83.6% of undergraduates say they’ve learned technical and soft skills they’ll need in the workplace.
The cost of education prohibits 87% of Americans from attending.2 Tuition and fees are up significantly over the last 20 years.21
41% for private
32% for out-of-state public
45% for in-state public
The gap between employers and educators is narrowing. According to the students we surveyed, higher education prepares them for their careers.
However, these same students aren’t connecting the skills they learn in the classroom with their prevalence in the workplace. This is particularly evident when demonstrating soft skill expertise and how their experience translates to the workforce during job interviews.
Luckily, the improvements needed to meet the demands of the modern workplace are within our grasp. Colleges should continue equipping students with these soft skills and help them make meaningful connections by teaching them how to apply these skills professionally: problem-solving, collaboration, and communication.
Internships remain extremely valuable for career readiness. Students walk away with demonstrable soft skills and hands-on experience. In our survey, 83.2% of recent grads say their internship helped them prepare for their career.1 The next step is for colleges to create similar experiences in the classroom.
“Students who go to college come out more mature and capable than their counterparts because they have been given lots of opportunities to problem-solve. Some just need a little more support than others. In my classes, I say, ‘Let's learn from these mistakes that we're making here.’” – Jennifer Braddock, Ph.D., director of product delivery and facilitation at NSLS.
(2025) The State of Higher Ed. The National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS).
Gray, K. (2024) What are employers looking for when reviewing college students' resumes? National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).
(2025) Job Outlook 2025. National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).
(2024) Varying Degrees 2024. New America.
Zhang, L., Liu, X., & Hu, Y. (2024). Degrees of return: Estimating internal rates of return for college majors using quantile regression. The American Educational Research Journal, 61(3).
(2023) Healthcare Skills: Hard vs. Soft. Bryant & Stratton College.
Wells, R. (2024) Top 10 skills for remote jobs hiring In 2024 from research. Forbes.
Unglesbee, B. (2025) The coming decline in high school graduate counts, in 5 charts. Higher Ed Dive.
Brower, T. (2025) 6 Priorities for education: What we want for K-12 and higher education. Forbes.
(2024) The most in-demand job skills 2024. LinkedIn.
Hora, M. & Song, H. (2024) Internships are linked to better employment outcomes for college graduates — there aren’t enough for students who want them. The Conversation.
(2024) Global Human Capital Trends. Deloitte Insights.
Jegatheeswaran, T. (2018) Delivering on the promise of digital collaboration: Unlocking the collaborative power of your organization. Deloitte.
McCarty, E. (2024) The state of the workplace and what’s coming in 2025. Forbes Business Council.
Seitz, K. (2024) Why soft skills are the key to thriving in tech. Lighthouse Labs.
Xu, Y. (2024) Engineering’s new world of work: A look at today’s most in-demand skills. LinkedIn Pulse.
Torres, R. (2024) Engineers wanted — must have communication skills. CIO Dive.
(2020) American Priorities for Higher Education. Populace Insights.
(2024) The 2024 Student Survey Report. NACE student survey. National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).
(2023) Closing the tech talent gap. LinkedIn Learning.
Wood, S. (2024) A look at 20 years of tuition costs at national universities. U.S. News & World Report.