Experiential Learning Assures Workforce Readiness

• Surveys indicate that nearly half of all workers do not have the skills they need for their jobs—and the majority of employers expect colleges to take more responsibility for workforce training.
• Lehman College School of Business is responding by offering more experiential learning opportunities, particularly in the areas of finance and entrepreneurship.
• The school continues to refine its offerings in response to employer and student feedback—most recently, by embedding AI tools into courses and by providing students with more structured mentorship.

 
The gap between academic preparation and workplace readiness is stark. Recent surveys indicate that nearly half of all existing workers need to be retrained, and that number will only get larger as technology reshapes the business landscape and artificial intelligence (AI) replaces many entry-level jobs.

Even workers who are college graduates often do not have the skills employers want. In fact, a 2023 survey by Intelligent.com shows that nearly 40 percent of employers prefer to hire older workers because younger ones don’t have the necessary skills, and 58 percent of employers say recent college graduates are unprepared for the workforce.

Similarly, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has released a Future of Jobs Report in which only 24 percent of recent college graduates say they have all the skills they need for their current roles, and 77 percent report that they learned more in six months on the job than during their entire undergraduate experience. And data from the U.S. Federal Reserve shows that 41 percent of college graduates remain underemployed in positions that don’t require degrees.

These figures indicate that colleges must do more to provide graduates with the practical skills they need in the workforce. In fact, a 2024 survey sponsored by Hult International Business School reveals that 96 percent of human resources leaders believe schools need to take more responsibility for workforce training.

What skills are most in demand today? According to the WEF report, the list includes critical thinking, creativity, resilience, problem-solving abilities, and a familiarity with technology. Similarly, according to information compiled by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), employers want workers who excel at critical thinking, communication, leadership, professionalism, teamwork, equity and inclusion, technology, and career- and self-development strategies.

These qualities cannot be cultivated through traditional academic lectures alone. They are best honed through experiential learning opportunities such as simulations, live projects, internships, and entrepreneurial challenges. Such activities immerse students in dynamic, uncertain situations that mirror real-world conditions. In these settings, students learn to make decisions, adapt to ambiguity, and collaborate across disciplines. They gain the skills they will need in the workplace.

A New Portfolio of Courses

For these reasons, we recently made experiential learning the central component of the curriculum at Lehman College’s School of Business in New York City, where we are part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system. As the only public business school in the Bronx and surrounding counties, we serve a diverse population of largely first-generation students, and more than half of our students come from families earning less than 30,000 USD annually. Our goal is not only to provide them with access to higher education, but also to set them on pathways that translate directly into meaningful careers.

Our redesigned curriculum combines experiential learning in the classroom with active internship initiatives with industry partners. We want our graduates to be able to add immediate value to any organization or launch their own businesses.

Finance and entrepreneurship emerged as natural entry points for what has become a portfolio of experiential learning courses.

Faculty began redesigning the curriculum in the fall of 2022. Supported by Dene Hurley, the dean of the school and a co-author of this article, faculty debated four key questions:

1. How might we better prepare students for the future of work by ensuring they have developed career-ready skills?
2. Where are the greatest gaps between workplace readiness and the traditional pedagogy of classroom theory?
3. What subject areas naturally lend themselves to authentic, practical experiential learning?
4. How can we leverage Lehman’s alumni network to provide unique opportunities typically available only at elite institutions?

As we addressed these questions, finance and entrepreneurship emerged as natural entry points for what has become a portfolio of experiential learning courses. Finance demands technical fluency, critical thinking, and the ability to communicate under pressure. Entrepreneurship builds adaptability, creativity, and resilience while teaching students to navigate uncertainty and manage constrained resources.

These subject areas turn out the graduates that employers are looking for: self-starters who are analytically sharp, tech-fluent, and skilled at communicating.

Real-World Learning Opportunities

As part of our redesign, we have incorporated experiential learning into two courses and several extracurricular activities:

Financial Research Using Data. This course addresses a concern that employers had raised: Too few students are able to use financial technology confidently or communicate complex analyses clearly. Therefore, in this class, students get a chance to work with Bloomberg terminals as they gather real-time market data, analyze financial ratios, and develop investment theses. During the three-week course, students work on teams to analyze data about a company such as Microsoft. At the end of the course, they come together as a class to present a single report and defend their recommendations to a panel of finance and investment professionals.

The course is taught by Alexander Núñez-Torres, a finance professor and co-author of this article, and Ira D. Cohen, an alum who is the co-founder and an operating partner of private equity firm Updata Partners. One student noted that the class “furthered my passion for investing and confirmed equity research as my career path. The challenge made it my favorite learning experience so far.”

Students sharpen business and communication skills, gain confidence, learn to access networks, and receive real-world feedback from practicing entrepreneurs.

Scaling Startup Businesses. This course, which functions as a live entrepreneurship accelerator, helps students refine early-stage business ideas through customer discovery, market research, and financial modeling. Students not only sharpen business and communication skills, but also gain confidence, learn to access networks, and receive real-world feedback from practicing entrepreneurs.

At the end of the three-week accelerator, students participate in a pitch competition that awards 2,500 USD in seed funding. Pitch winners must enroll with the Bronx Small Business Development Center and begin business consulting relationships to unlock their funding, which ensures continuity of support. Past participants have created businesses that range from a health tech startup to a full-service event planning company to a nightlife discovery app.

The course was designed by entrepreneurship professor Andy Gold, a co-author of this article, with support from alumnus Nick Markola, a research expert at the venture capital firm Type One Ventures. By treating the classroom as a startup lab, the course helps students cultivate skills such as resilience, adaptability, and entrepreneurial problem-solving—qualities that are critically needed across all industries.

One student noted that being part of the accelerator “has been incredibly empowering. We’re not only encouraged to dream, but equipped with the right skills and mentors to build careers that matter to our communities.”

Other real-world challenges. Students have additional opportunities to get hands-on experience. For instance, they can take an accounting course taught by Tara Foley in which they earn IRS certification and run the IRS’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, which offers free assistance to people who need help filing their taxes.

Students also can compete in the Federal Reserve’s College Fed Challenge, in which teams of undergraduates analyze economic and financial conditions and formulate policy recommendations. Lehman’s team is led by faculty members Nikolaos Papanikolaou and Jose Gomez-Gonzalez.

Finally, because Lehman is a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), our students can participate in the HSI Battle of the Brains, an annual pitch competition. Faculty members Sean Stein-Smith and Andy Gold manage Lehman’s team.

Continuous Refinement Through Feedback

Although our students have access to many existing opportunities, our experiential learning framework is not static. Throughout the academic year, we gather feedback from employers and students so we can refine our model through an iterative process that ensures our programs remain current, responsive, and tied to student and employer needs.

For instance, employers have emphasized the need for stronger AI and data analytics skills. In response, we are embedding AI tools into our courses, particularly in relation to financial modeling and business planning. These tools will teach students to use technology to make smarter decisions.

We gather feedback from employers and students so we can ensure our programs remain current, responsive, and tied to student and employer needs.

Students have asked for more structured mentorship. Therefore, we are expanding alumni involvement to pair accelerator participants with advisors who remain engaged beyond the pitch competition.

Students also have consistently expressed a desire for more experiential learning that enables them to apply concepts they’ve learned in class. Their feedback drives our updates to our experiential learning initiatives.

Takeaways for Peer Institutions

We have found that one key for successfully embedding experiential education into the curriculum is ensuring that faculty are involved. Effective and dynamic experiential education doesn’t happen without faculty buy-in.

To that end, every semester, the entire faculty of the School of Business participates in The Innovation Retreat. There, faculty spend the entire day working together, engaging in design thinking sprints, sharing best practices for student engagement, and co-creating new experiential learning activities. At these convenings, faculty also get critical exposure to current employer expectations and needs. As a result of the retreats, we have observed a snowball effect of peer-to-peer influence, increased collegiality, and active faculty engagement.

If other schools are seeking to strengthen their experiential learning offerings, we would first advise them to organize similar events to get faculty buy-in. We would also offer five additional suggestions:

• Start with guiding questions. Identify where classroom-to-career gaps are most acute and focus initial efforts there.
• Tie courses to real stakes. To increase student accountability and enhance skill transfer, ensure students have opportunities to make presentations to industry professionals or participate in pitch competitions.
• Leverage alumni. Alumni bring authenticity to events, provide mentorship to current students, and open their networks to their alma maters.
• Iterate continuously. Use employer and student feedback to keep programs relevant, especially as technology reshapes industries.
• Embed, don’t bolt on. Experiential learning is most impactful when it is part of the curriculum, not treated as an extracurricular add-on.

A Call to Action

The future of work demands more than knowledge; it demands know-how. By intentionally designing programs that combine academic rigor with real-world application, colleges can close the readiness gap while expanding opportunities for all.

At Lehman College’s School of Business, we want to provide our students with opportunities often reserved for those at elite institutions. We do this by incorporating experiential learning directly into credit-bearing courses, partnering with alumni, and aligning with employer expectations. In this way, we hope to create graduates who are not just degree-holders but career-ready professionals and entrepreneurial leaders. These graduates will help us strengthen connections among Lehman, our alumni, and the Bronx community.

While we are still refining our own model, we believe that experiential learning can be both rigorous and equitable. The result: graduates ready to thrive in the workplace and contribute meaningfully to their communities and local economies.