Colleges used to believe that their role was to prepare students with the critical thinking, problem solving and executive function skills to help get their fifth job. Today, however, the importance of the first job to future earnings – and the ultimate return on the tuition investment – is increasingly clear. In some states, political leaders are challenging institutions to ensure 100% employment from the most popular majors; some schools are responding with job guarantees.

At the same time, however, it has been said that students at elite universities are risk-averse, and that therefore they're less likely to enter "risky" fields like IT or biotech without the kind of clear, safe, low-risk pathways they have for more established professions, like medicine, law, and investment banking. Today, however, we’re seeing the emergence of pathways for these higher-risk and higher-return fields. During this session, come hear from Ryan Craig of University Ventures, author of College Disrupted: The Great Unbundling of Higher Education, and Joe Mitchell of Revature, on how emerging pre-hire training intermediaries are allowing universities to improve the value of their bachelor’s degree programs, and create no-risk pathways toward high value careers.