Recent college graduates are facing a job market that’s only getting tougher. Their unemployment rate hit 5.7%, compared to 4.1% for all workers, in June 2026. That may not sound like much, but it’s one of the worst rates in the past 20 years.

Meanwhile, roughly 4 in 10 graduates are underemployed, which means they work in jobs that typically don’t require a college degree. That’s the highest rate since the COVID-19 pandemic.

As an educator for more than 25 years, I see the growing anxiety every day. In a change from years past, parents are now peppering me with questions: How can their kids leverage their college education in such a fast-changing world? Will they learn skills in school that will soon be antiquated once they graduate?

What’s essential to understand is that technology adoption cycles have accelerated at a breathtaking rate over the past few years. While the telephone and television took decades to reach 100 million users, ChatGPT and TikTok attained that threshold in a matter of months. Colleges need to adapt their curricula accordingly.

Georgia Tech, where I teach engineering, has focused on pushing entrepreneurship across our campus since 2014. We’re seeing encouraging signs from our follow-ups with graduating students that it’s helping their early careers.

I believe one of the best ways to adjust to these changes is to embed entrepreneurial experiences throughout college. Such hands-on learning, in turn, develops versatile, adaptable talent, producing graduates who can pivot across jobs as industries, technologies and opportunities evolve. And this needn’t be confined to business students – young people in all majors can benefit.

The educational value of entrepreneurship isn’t principally that every student will be able to start a company. It’s that entrepreneurial experiences develop the capabilities students need in a rapidly changing economy – and ultimately build more resilient careers.

Here are some ways educators can future-proof the college experience, based on what I’ve learned and applied at Georgia Tech.

Making adaptability a core skill: Students need to learn how to be nimble. This means recognizing important changes in the landscape,........

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