Students conduct groundbreaking study on 'brain drain'

College grads look for jobs outside Wisconsin

By: Jeremy Pink

Posted: 10/17/07

A two-year study orchestrated by students at the UW-Whitewater recently released its findings showing college students' lack of perception of career opportunities in Wisconsin.

The study, which was directed by Productive Knowledge, Inc. of Elm Grove, Wis., was carried out by students of UW-Whitewater lecturer Bill Lowell's public opinion classes over the course of two years and provided results directly from college students across Wisconsin: the source previous studies may not have been focusing on effectively.

David Niles, co-owner of Productive Knowledge, said his firm was prompted to do the study after viewing similar studies.

"We saw that many of the other studies were not talking directly to the students," he said.

UW-Madison released a similar study in 2006, but Niles said the focus on students of all grades was not there.

"That [study] was primarily focused on graduates rather than existing students," Niles said. "Other studies also seemed to focus on what business leaders and civic leaders think about the situation. We wanted a study that would strictly focus on current college students across Wisconsin and not just at a particular college."

So Productive Knowledge formulated a series of survey questions and enlisted the help of Lowell and his public opinion students to execute the surveys on college students of all grades.

"The students were broken up into teams and were responsible to go out and gather the information," Lowell said.

Niles said approximately 2,000 students from Wisconsin and other states were surveyed for the study. According to student results, 77 percent of which were from Wisconsin, there may be a communication problem between businesses and students.

"Freshman are not being urged to look into Wisconsin's job opportunities, thus they often believe that opportunities only exist elsewhere," UW-Whitewater graduate student Kelli Danielski said in a release from Productive Knowledge; Danielski was one of the students who helped conduct the study.

The foundation of the brain drain is a problem Niles believes needs to be shouldered by Wisconsin businesses first and foremost.

"I think it's about what businesses need to do," Niles said. "I think they need to look at the ways they're trying to reach young people."

According to the results of the study, that's something businesses may currently be failing at.

"We questioned students if job fairs were as effective as they once were," Niles said.

The results suggest no. According to the results of the study, 61 percent of students got information about job opportunities from friends; 56 percent of those surveyed got it from the Internet, and only 23 percent said job fairs were a good source of information.

"Younger people are finding out about jobs through different means," Niles said. "Businesses need to use those means. Businesses need to use online social media to reach young people to them about career opportunities."

If businesses want well-educated college students to know that they want them to join their workforces, students here are not hearing it initially, Niles said.

Niles said the study showed that when they are first asked about it, students have a negative outlook on career opportunities, but as they are supplied with information the outlook becomes better.

He said the students who conducted the survey were perfect proof of that.

"Initially, we asked all the students who were conducting the survey what they thought about job opportunities in Wisconsin," he said. "As they went through it, the more information we offered them, the perceptions changed from negative to positive."

"Before the survey, I didn't believe there were many career opportunities for me in Wisconsin when I graduate," Josh Sildorff, one of Lowell's students, said in a release. "I soon found that there are many job opportunities that pertain to advertising and marketing right here in Wisconsin."

Niles said all of the results from this study don't mean there are not any job opportunities out there; students simply are not aware of them.

"There is a lack of perception of the opportunities," Niles said. "And somehow the information is not getting to [students]."