30% of Potential Career Changers Want More Purpose
COVID-19 is causing us to reconsider many things in our lives as we shift to virtual working, learning, and living. With Couragion’s focus on career and workforce development, we’ve been thinking a lot about the future of education and work. I’ve always appreciated Strada’s research in the space, so I hopped on a webinar last week sharing the findings of their recent COVID-19 Work and Education Survey. The US-based survey collected more than 11,000 responses between March 25 and June 11 with the hope of providing insights for education and training providers, policymakers, employers, and individuals who are faced with the COVID-19 crisis. Below are some of the highlights from the research.
1 in 3 Americans would become "career changers" if they lost their job - meaning that they would change fields.
‘Business’ is the number one field most people would like to transition to, the last field people would want to leave, and the field with the largest current number of available job openings.
30% of workers who would seek a transition are motivated primarily by wanting more purpose or fit - as measured by doing work that helps more people, doing work that is more stimulating, or finding a better fit for their talents. By the way, Couragion’s data shows that around 80% of students believe “having a job with a greater purpose is important”. So this trend is likely to resurface again.
In order to make a career change possible, individuals realize that they might need to reskill or seek additional education and training. 56% of individuals believe that they do not have access to the education and training that they need.
62% of individuals would prefer a nondegree program or skills training in order to attain the required skills they need. And perhaps only a sign of the times, 46% would value online programs over in person or work-based ones.
Check out the full Public Viewpoint: COVID-19 Work and Education Survey for more details on the research, the webinar, or the cool interactive weekly dashboard that explores perspectives over time.