High School was supposed to prepare students for college. And college is supposed to help prepare students for employment. But how are colleges doing this?
Admittedly, colleges are often failing. In college, students learn that they can turn assignments in after the deadline and they still pass the class. They simply get docked 5 points or 10% or whatever the professor has determined. In contrast, if I missed the deadline of sending a file to the bank at my last job... my company could get fined upwards of $5000 and this would likely put my job in jeopardy.
In college, not reading the guidelines on the study guide could greatly effect your grade. But many professors allow you to go back and correct this. However, at my last job, if we didn't follow the guidelines from the Feds, we would be fined $5000 for the first mistake, $10000 for the second mistake, and $15000 for every mistake after! Needless to say, someone would face some serious consequences!
Granted, there are also significant differences. In college, each professor is somewhat like a "boss" (if we're trying to make a parallel). Each professor gives you different tasks to work on (reading, papers, reports, etc.) and each task has its own deadline. If all the deadlines fall on the same day, well, guess what? You better find a way to work it out.
In the corporate world, if there were two big projects coming our way, those projects would be divided among employees so that each person had a manageable work load. Deadlines could be spaced out and would be adjusted as often as possible. An employee typically has only one or two bosses and there is a chain of command in which an employee can appeal to when necessary. This doesn't happen in college.
How well we prepare ourselves for the corporate world is often dependent on the student. Understanding the way that the corporate world connects is helpful in learning the skills necessary while in college. And this disconnect, in my opinion, is the cause for colleges and universities failing to prepare students for Corporate America.
