The Importance of College & Career Awareness;

College:

“Many boys and girls grow up dreaming of playing sports in college and the pro ranks. But of the nearly eight million students currently participating in high school athletics in the United States, only 460,000 of them will compete at NCAA schools. And of that group, only a fraction will realize their goal of becoming a professional athlete.

For the rest, the experiences of college athletics and the life lessons they learn along the way will help them as they pursue careers in other fields. Education is a vital part of the college athletics experience, and student-athletes treat it that way. Overall, student-athletes graduate at higher rates than their peers in the student body, and those rates rise each year. And through the entire athletic experience they have had to successfully use and master Creative Thinking Skills. Problem Solving Skills as well as being Team Players with excellent Communication Skills.

These charts show the probability of competing in athletics beyond high school – both college and professionally. The percentages are based on estimated data:

All Sports : (http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/estimated-probability-competing-college-athletics) Graphs: (http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/probability-competing-beyond-high-school)”

"Probability of competing in sports beyond high school" NCAA.org. Web. 31 July 2015

Career Awareness:

‘Among not-enrolled youth who did not have a high school diploma, unemployment rates in October 2014 were 24.6 percent for young men and 32.1 percent for young women. In contrast, the jobless rates of young men and women with at least a bachelor's degree were 8.0 percent and 7.8 percent, respectively.’ - United States Department of Labor

”By 2017, an estimated 2.5 million new, middle-skill jobs like are expected to be added to the workforce, accounting for nearly 40% of all job growth, according to a USA TODAY analysis of local data from Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. and CareerBuilder.”

The question is,”Will workers know how to get them?”

"There's a new middle. It's tougher, and takes more skill," says Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

And here’s what’s missing… There’s a tremendous Skills Gap and many graduates have skills that companies don’t highly prize anymore. Today the new skill set that companies are looking for are the students that are Creative Thinkers, Creative Problem Solvers who have Leadership Skills and Communication Skills.

Take a look at the Bloomberg Recruiter Report: Job Skills Companies Want But Can’t Get

“Business schools are supposed to produce graduates who have the abilities companies need most. But corporate recruiters say some highly sought-after skills are in short supply among newly minted MBAs. As part of our ranking of 122 top business programs, Bloomberg surveyed 1,320 job recruiters at more than 600 companies to find out which skills employers want but can’t find—and which B-schools are best at meeting the needs of the market.”