3 Flexible Ways Students Can Gain Today’s Most Sought-After Skills

By Shayna Joubert | September 8, 2016

No two students are the same. Each prefers a different learning style and environment, comes from a diverse background, and has varying levels of experience on his or her resumé.

The same goes for employers. Each company is hiring for a particular skill set, values different competencies in its employees, and measures success in its own way.

Overarching hiring trends have continued to emerge, however, and Northeastern has committed to filling a unique gap—one between employers’ evolving demands and the flexible learning options today’s students need.

Here is a look at three ways Northeastern is providing students with an education that isn’t one size fits all, and in a way that meets industry demand.

iCert

According to the National Association of College and Employers’ 2016 Job Outlook survey, more than 80 percent of employers said they look for leadership skills on a candidate’s resumé. From there, they want to see evidence of how well one works in teams, how strong his or her communication skills are, and a clear indication the candidate knows how to solve problems.

Northeastern’s Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Professional Studies, also known as iCert, helps students develop those exact workplace competencies, as well as skills in cultural responsiveness, management, and systems thinking.

The program achieves that by allowing students to individualize their graduate education. Through the iCert Foundations course, students create a Personalized Learning Plan (PLP) centered on their unique strengths, needs, and career interests. Students choose classes from multiple program areas and complete hands-on, project-based work that fulfills their PLP and sets the foundation for their future career. Credits earned through iCert can then be applied to one of 10 master’s degree programs.

Level

LinkedIn analyzed all of the hiring and recruiting activity that occurred on the social network in 2015 and published a list of employers’ most sought-after skills. Chief among them was statistical analysis and data mining, ranking as the second most popular competency, and data engineering and data warehousing, coming in at number 11.

At Northeastern, our two-month data analytics bootcamp Level helps equip students with the data skills they need to attract employers’ attention. Students develop the foundational knowledge necessary to make better business decisions and start familiarizing themselves with every stage of the analytics lifecycle, from preparing data to visualizing it, using tools like SQL, R, Excel, and Tableau.

Level students are then paired directly with an employer to complete a capstone project, which they later present to the partnering organization. Not only are they able to apply the data skills they’ve learned to a real-world scenario, but they also demonstrate their communication and problem-solving capabilities.

ALIGN

One of the most critical skills gaps facing the nation is cyber security, reports Fast Company. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the demand for cyber security positions, such as information security professionals, is expected to grow by 53 percent over the next two years.

The Northeastern ALIGN program is prepared to help meet the demand by offering a Master of Science in Information Assurance and Cyber Security.

What’s unique about ALIGN is that the program welcomes students from a variety of backgrounds and undergraduate majors, including math, engineering, journalism, and the classics. Through academic bridge courses, students are able to connect their prior experience to their desired industry and complete hands-on, real-world work through a variety of experiential learning opportunities.

ALIGN offers four other master’s degrees in growing STEM fields—which offer exceptional employment opportunities and salaries an average 26 percent higher than other professions:

No matter your preferred learning style or environment, or what experience you want to gain, Northeastern should have a program designed to fit your needs.