Marick Masters: Technology, new economy change face of business ed
The idea of working at one company for a lengthy period of time has faded. In its place, people are increasingly getting by on a myriad of part-time jobs, temporary 40-hour stints, contract assignments and freelance work — if not a combination of all the above. About 4.8 million Americans are working in the gig economy, according to Intuit and Emergent Research. “The nature of employment relationships is changing in an aggregate sense and that creates opportunities and challenges for them,” said Marick Masters, professor of business at Wayne State University. “We’re emphasizing the skills and information they’ll need to better navigate in the new economy and that includes such things as entrepreneurship, teamwork, (and) communications. (We’re also) helping them through career services to understand how to better manage the job search process through an online, digital, social media perspective.” Students are catching on that they need something of a mercenary mentality when it comes to a job search. “They are very aware of this,” Masters said. “I don’t think they are very accepting of it and the challenges of it. If they are not fully employed, they are continually on the job market. Even if they do get fully employed, there is no guaranteed job security, if we think of it in the old-fashioned way…it no longer exists. Companies restructure and they constantly restructure and the nature of the economy is changing and so all these things combined can mean you’re going to be moving and you may not be able to predict or choose the time you will move.”
