The Role of University Career Centers in Reskilling: An Overview of Universities in Turkey

Introduction

The message of today's business world is clear; digitalization is rapidly changing all organizations, industries and the entire working environment, and this change brings with it a change in skills and competencies. This change is leading to the emergence of new professions, changes in job descriptions, or an increased expectation that some professions will disappear in the future. Digital applications such as artificial intelligence, automation, and data-driven technologies, etc. require all employees, regardless of blue and white collar, to acquire new skills or renew their existing skills. As the digital revolution and technological transitions accelerate, the need for skilled labor is increasing day by day.

Different reports prepared by institutions that are closely related and associated with the labor market, such as the World Bank and the International Labor Organization, emphasize on the one hand that the nature of work and occupations is changing rapidly; on the other hand, they also discuss the roles and responsibilities of educational institutions in acquiring the skills needed for the jobs of the future (Sakamoto & Sung, 2018; WEF, 2023).

Companies that want to retain economic competitiveness in the production market feel obliged to employ labor with the skills required by the market and contribute to sustainable growth. This will only be possible through the adoption of technology and automation in production and through reskilling and skills development. Globalization and increasing competition have directed all companies, regardless of scale, to international markets; transportation has accelerated for all living and non-living beings, and the increasing variety and speed of communication resources have forced people to change both intellectually and socially. In this context, companies must follow and manage all these changes to survive. For this reason, in determining and fulfilling business-specific goals, human and human resources and, of course, universities stand out with the responsibility of providing good education to society and its individuals (Karaaslan, 2017). In this context we can say that universities are primarily responsible for improving the employability of students and graduates, i.e., preparing them for the world of work and helping them transition to the labor market.

At this point, the responsibility of universities in general to educate human resources that can meet the needs of society and thus the working life has made it necessary for universities to adapt to the rapid changes in both society and working life. In this context, the responsibilities of universities have changed and developed in the fields of career planning and career counselling. With the changing working life, graduates have become more concerned with facts such as career, competence, competence, and employability rather than diploma and graduation degree. At this point, university career centers undertake important tasks in career counselling, career planning, career fairs, and bringing the sector and students together (Karaaslan, 2017). Universities' career services in particular have a dominant role in this field. All over the world, career services not only increase the employment chances of students and graduates by connecting them directly with employers, but they also aim to increase the employability of graduates by encouraging the redesign of course content according to the professionalism and skill requirements of the corporate world, thus enabling them to transition more easily into the labor market. In other words, from the employers' perspective, the career services of universities represent the main channel to achieve a good match between their requirements and the profiles of graduates (Casella, 2017).

Nevertheless, the most important questions on the minds of today's young people are “Will I be able to find a job when I graduate?” and “Will the job I find be what I want?” In a country where unemployment and labor turnover rates are high, especially for university graduates, it has become increasingly difficult to find answers to these questions. Candidates who are considering entering the labor market need to have the skills required by the labor market and those who are already employed need to acquire new skills. At this point, reskilling gain importance.