Not long ago, a headline caught my attention: NASA plans to send a 3-D printer to the moon and use it to build structures layer by layer. The target date is 2040. Fourteen years from now.
When I read that, I had the same reaction I had as a child in the 1970s when an adult told me someday people would talk on the phone and see each other at the same time.
I couldn’t imagine it.
Years later, when I was a high school senior in 1987, a teacher said someday we’d watch movies on a computer whenever we wanted. Again, it seemed impossible.
History shows us something important. The future always arrives faster than we expect.
Today that pace of change is accelerating and reshaping one of the most important systems in American life: the pathway from education to work. Recent research from the Burning Glass Institute underscores the urgency. For the first time in modern history, young college graduates are struggling more in the job market than peers without degrees. The unemployment rate for young degree holders has climbed from about 4.2% before the pandemic to more than 5.6% today. Even in fields long considered safe bets, the trend is visible.
Why is this happening?
Artificial intelligence is reshaping entry-level work. Tasks that once helped young professionals gain experience — drafting reports, conducting basic research, analyzing data — are increasingly performed by large language models. Companies are still growing and producing strong results but doing so with fewer early-career employees. The traditional workforce pyramid, where many junior employees learn from fewer senior professionals, is being inverted.
This creates a troubling catch-22. Employers want experience, but the jobs that once provided that experience are disappearing.
These trends feed a narrative that college is no longer worth it. That should concern us all.
Higher education remains one of the most reliable engines of economic mobility. College graduates still earn more over their lifetimes, experience lower unemployment rates and enjoy greater job stability than those without degrees. Education develops the durable skills our economy needs: critical thinking, adaptability, problem solving and the ability to work across differences.
But we must confront a hard truth. The traditional ways colleges and employers connect students to careers are no longer sufficient for the economy we inhabit. The question isn’t whether college is valuable. It’s how we’ll continue making it valuable in a rapidly changing labor market.
Doing so requires deeper and faster partnerships between higher education and employers. At Roanoke College, we aren’t merely responding to these challenges; we’re actively building solutions that demonstrate what is possible when education and industry work together with purpose.
One effort focuses on adults who started college but never finished. Nearly 43 million Americans fall into this category. Through an initiative called RC-RV, developed with employers in the Roanoke Valley, adult learners can earn flexible industry credentials that build toward degrees while remaining connected to their careers. Programs are designed with regional employers so what students learn directly reflects what companies need.
Another approach embeds real work experience directly into the curriculum. Through partnerships with companies such as TMEIC, a global industrial electronics firm, students collaborate on real engineering projects while still in college. They graduate not just with classroom knowledge but with experience solving real problems.
Our recently launched biomedical sciences program in partnership with Virginia Western Community College emerged from direct conversations with Carilion Clinic, LewisGale and other healthcare employers. We asked what capabilities their employees truly need to succeed in a rapidly evolving healthcare environment. They told us: clinical skills, absolutely, but also communication under pressure, ethical reasoning in complex situations, cultural competency with diverse patients and the ability to function in fast-changing teams. We built those competencies into the program from the ground up.
The result? Students graduate prepared. Employers have a pipeline they trust. Students know their degree will lead somewhere meaningful.
These collaborations benefit everyone. Students gain experience. Employers gain access to emerging talent. Faculty gain insight into evolving industry needs.
While these examples are all leading us in the right direction, Virginia and the nation need a broader shift in how we think about education and workforce development. Colleges must move faster to adapt programs to emerging industries. Employers must invest time and expertise in helping shape the talent pipeline, not simply recruiting from it. And policymakers should encourage partnerships that connect learning and work earlier and more intentionally.
The future of work is being written right now. If higher education and employers move with urgency and imagination, we can ensure that college remains a powerful pathway to opportunity.
I remain deeply optimistic about what we are building at Roanoke College in partnership with the Roanoke Valley. We are proving that when education and industry work together we can create pathways that prepare students not just for their first job, but for careers of continuous growth and meaningful contribution.
The world is changing faster than ever. But that doesn’t have to be cause for despair. It can be a call to action, an opportunity to imagine and create something better together.
And that is exactly what we intend to do.
Frank Shushok Jr. is president of Roanoke College.
