What Ails Our Labor Market Is Evident in College — from insidehighered.com by Brandon Busteed
Both colleges and employers must fix work-readiness failures and inequitable work-readiness practices, writes Brandon Busteed.

Excerpts:

The price tag for college continues to rise, while doubts about the work readiness of college graduates are rampant. This is very bad news for higher education, given the No. 1 reason Americans value a college degree is to get a good or better job.

Higher education isn’t alone in needing to fix what ails us. Employers of all shapes and sizes need to step up. After all, what they want most from a college graduate is one with relevant job or internship experience. State and federal governments can and should provide more incentives (whether matching funds or tax subsidies) to encourage more paid internships offered by employers. And why not an addition to the Pell program to provide stipends for unpaid or low-paid internships?

Unfortunately, only 14 percent of current college students received academic credit for their internship.

 

New Unionization, Upskilling And The Future Of Work — from forbes.com by Daphne Kis

From DSC:
I’m not sure what I think of this article as a whole, but I like the emphasis on lifelong learning! here are some relevant excerpts, for example:

In particular, workers and businesses should take this moment to partner around the issue of education and forge new agreements about employer-provided training and reskilling.

This approach, however, is inadequate to deal with the demands of today’s global information economy, which demands continual upskilling on the part of workers.

As true job security can only be generated by continued education and training, this is in the interest of all parties.

“We need to replenish skills throughout a working career, and this calls for revisiting the models and concept of lifelong learning to create the future we want.”

 

 

Nikolas Badminton – Elevate Festival 2022 Keynote — futurist.com by Nikolas Badminton

Excerpts/words/phrases:

  • Shifting from “What is?” to “What if? (i.e., paradigm shifts)
  • Megatrends
  • Potential futures
  • Signals of change
  • Scenarios
  • Trajectories
  • Think about the good as well as the bad
  • Telling stories
  • Black swans/elephants
  • Making your organization more profitable and resilient

 

 

Tearing the ‘paper ceiling’: McKinsey supports effort driving upward mobility for millions of workers — from mckinsey.com

Excerpt:

September 23, 2022There’s a hidden talent pool that most employers overlook—the more than 70 million workers in the US who are STARs, or workers ‘skilled through alternative routes.’ Whether through community college, workforce training, bootcamp or certificate programs, military service, or on-the-job learning, STARs have the skills for higher-wage jobs but often find themselves blocked from consideration.

This week, nonprofit Opportunity@Work and the Ad Council have launched a nationwide campaign to ‘Tear the Paper Ceiling’ and encourage employers to change hiring practices. McKinsey is providing pro bono support to the effort through data and analytics tools that enable recruiters to recognize STARs and their skills.

“While companies scramble to find talent amid a perceived skills gap, many of their job postings have needlessly excluded half of the workers in the country who have the skills for higher-wage work,” says Byron Auguste, founder of Opportunity@Work and a former senior partner at McKinsey. “Companies like the ones we’re proud to call partners in this effort—and those we hope will join—can lead the way by tapping into skilled talent from a far wider range of backgrounds.”

There are lots of reasons why someone might not begin or complete a degree that have nothing to do with their intrinsic abilities or potential. We know there are better ways to screen for talent and now we have the research and tools to back that up.

Carolyn Pierce, McKinsey partner

Also from McKinsey, see:

Latest McKinsey tech outlook identifies 14 key trends for business leaders

Excerpt:

October 4, 2022 The McKinsey Technology Council—a global group of over 100 scientists, entrepreneurs, researchers, and business leaders—has published its second annual Technology Trends Outlook. By assessing metrics of innovation, interest, investment, and adoption, the council has prioritized and synthesized 40 technologies into 14 leading trends.

Following on from last year, applied AI once again earned the highest score for innovation in the report. Sustainability, meanwhile, emerged as a major catalyst for tech around the world, with clean energy and sustainable consumption drawing the highest investment from private-equity and venture-capital firms. And five new trends were added to this year’s edition: industrializing machine learning, Web3, immersive-reality technologies, the future of mobility, and the future of space.

In this post, McKinsey senior partner Lareina Yee, expert partner Roger Roberts, and McKinsey Global Institute partner Michael Chui share their thoughts about what the findings may mean for leaders over the next few years.

 

The Key To Becoming A Lifelong Learner, With Amrit Ahluwalia Editor In Chief At The EvoLLLution Episode 79 — from thefutureofwork.libsyn.com

From Pasadena City College:
We are leading the conversation of how to begin closing the gap between what our students are learning and what the demands of the workforce will be once they enter. Listen Now.

 

Communicating the Value of Foresight — from futurist.com by Nikolas Badminton

Excerpt:

After seven years each company’s maturity was measured and it was the vigilant companies – the ones that integrated foresight with their strategic practices – that were ‘33 per cent more profitable than companies on average. In addition, these vigilant companies have achieved a 200 per cent higher growth rate than the average company.’

 

Is Compliance Training Killing Your Learning Culture? — from learningsolutionsmag.com by Adam Weisblatt

Excerpt:

There is a disconnect in learning and development departments in most large companies: On one hand there is an obligation to meet regulatory requirements for compliance training. On the other, there is the drive to improve business outcomes by creating a culture of learning.

These two forces can clash when expectations are not well defined.

Somewhat relevant/see:

Branching Scenario Podcast with Mark Parry — from christytuckerlearning.com by Christy Tucker
Mark Parry recently interviewed me for his podcast about branching scenarios, including how feedback is used to help learners in scenarios.

 

We must end ‘productivity paranoia’ on working from home says Microsoft — from inavateonthenet.net

Excerpt:

As part of a survey on hybrid working patterns of more than 20,000 people in 11 countries, Microsoft has called for an end to ‘productivity paranoia’ with 85% of business leaders still saying they find it difficult to have confidence in staff productivity when remote working.

“Closing the feedback loop is key to retaining talent. Employees who feel their companies use employee feedback to drive change are more satisfied (90% vs. 69%) and engaged (89% vs. 73%) compared to those who believe their companies don’t drive change. And the employees who don’t think their companies drive change based on feedback? They’re more than twice as likely to consider leaving in the next year (16% vs. 7%) compared to those who do. And it’s not a one-way street. To build trust and participation in feedback systems, leaders should regularly share what they’re hearing, how they’re responding, and why.”

From DSC:
It seems to me that trust and motivation are highly involved here. Trust in one’s employees to do their jobs. And employees who aren’t producing and have low motivation levels should consider changing jobs/industries to find something that’s much more intrinsically motivating to them. Find a cause/organization that’s worth working for.

 

Keynote Wrap-Up: NVIDIA CEO Unveils Next-Gen RTX GPUs, AI Workflows in the Cloud — from blogs.nvidia.com by Brian Caulfield
Kicking off GTC, Jensen Huang unveils advances in natural language understanding, the metaverse, gaming and AI technologies impacting industries from transportation and healthcare to finance and entertainment.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

New cloud services to support AI workflows and the launch of a new generation of GeForce RTX GPUs featured [on 9/20/22] in NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s GTC keynote, which was packed with new systems, silicon, and software.

“Computing is advancing at incredible speeds, the engine propelling this rocket is accelerated computing, and its fuel is AI,” Huang said during a virtual presentation as he kicked off NVIDIA GTC.

Again and again, Huang connected new technologies to new products to new opportunities – from harnessing AI to delight gamers with never-before-seen graphics to building virtual proving grounds where the world’s biggest companies can refine their products.

Driving the deluge of new ideas, new products and new applications: a singular vision of accelerated computing unlocking advances in AI, which, in turn will touch industries around the world.

Also relevant/see:

 

Moving from program effectiveness to organizational implications — from chieflearningofficer.com by Rachel Walter

Excerpt:

To summarize, begin by ensuring that you are able to add business value. Do this by designing solutions specific to the known business problem to achieve relevance through adding value. Build credibility through these successes and expand your network and business acumen. Use the expanding business knowledge to begin gathering information about leading and lagging indicators of business success. Build some hypotheses and start determining where to find data related to your hypotheses.

More than looking at data points, look for trends across the data and communicate these trends to build upon them. It’s critical to talk about your findings and communicate what you are seeing. By continuing to drive business value, you can help others stop looking at data that does not truly matter in favor of data that directly affects the organization’s goals.

Also, from the corporate learning ecosystem:

Creating Better Video For Learning, Part 1 — from elearningindustry.com by Patti Shank

Summary: 

This is the first article in a series about what evidence (research) says about creating better video for learning. It discusses the attributes of media and technologies for digital or blended instruction, selecting content and social interactions, and the strengths and challenges of video.

 

From DSC:
Now you’re talking! A team-based effort to deliver an Associate’s Degree for 1/3 of the price! Plus a job-ready certificate from Google, IBM, or Salesforce. Nice. 

Check these items out!


We started Outlier because we believe that students deserve better. So we worked from the ground up to create the best online college courses in the world, just for curious-minded learners like you.

The brightest instructors, available on-demand. Interactive materials backed by cognitive science. Flexible timing. And that’s just the beginning.

Outlier.org

MasterClass’s Co-Founder Takes on the Community-College Degree — from wsj.com by Lindsay Ellis
A new, online-only education model promises associate degrees via prerecorded lectures from experts at Yale, NASA and other prestigious institutions

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

One of the founders of the celebrity-fueled, e-learning platform MasterClass is applying the same approach to the humble community-college degree—one based on virtual, highly produced lectures from experts at prestigious institutions around the country.

The two-year degrees—offered in applied computing, liberal studies or business administration—will be issued by Golden Gate University, a nonprofit institution in San Francisco. Golden Gate faculty and staff, not the lecturers, will be the ones to hold office hours, moderate virtual discussions and grade homework, said Outlier, which is announcing the program Wednesday and plans to start courses in the spring.

Golden Gate University and Outlier.org Reinvent Affordable College with Degrees+ — from prnewswire.com

Excerpt:

For less than one-third the price of the national average college tuition, students will earn an associate degree plus a job-ready certificate from Google, IBM, or Salesforce

NEW YORK, Sept. 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Golden Gate University is launching Degrees+, powered by Outlier.org, with three associate degrees that reimagine the two-year degree for a rising generation of students that demand high quality education without the crushing cost. For annual tuition of $4,470 all-inclusive, students will earn a two-year degree that uniquely brings together the best of a college education with a career-relevant industry certificate.

Beginning today, students can apply to be part of the first class, which starts in Spring 2023.

“Imagine if everyone had the option to go to college with top instructors from HarvardYale, Google, and NASA via the highest-quality online classes. By upgrading the two-year degree, we can massively reduce student debt and set students up for success, whether that’s transferring into a four-year degree or going straight into their careers.”

Aaron Rasmussen, CEO and founder of Outlier.org
and co-founder of MasterClass

Outlier.org & Universities Call for Greater Credit Transfer Transparency — from articles.outliner.org

Excerpt:

“Outlier.org is working with leading institutions across the country to build a new kind of on-ramp to higher education,” said Aaron Rasmussen, CEO and Founder of Outlier.org. “By partnering with schools to build bridges from our courses into their degree programs, we can help students reduce the cost of their education and graduate faster.”


From DSC:
All of this reminds me of a vision I put out on my Calvin-based website at the time (To His Glory! was the name of the website.) The vision was originally called “The Forthcoming Walmart of Education” — which I renamed to “EduMart Education.”

By the way…because I’m not crazy about Walmart, I’m not crazy about that name. In today’s terms, it might be better called the new “Amazon.com of Higher Education” or something along those lines. But you get the idea. Lower prices due to new business models.

.


 

What if smart TVs’ new killer app was a next-generation learning-related platform? [Christian]

TV makers are looking beyond streaming to stay relevant — from protocol.com by Janko Roettgers and Nick Statt

A smart TV's main menu listing what's available -- application wise

Excerpts:

The search for TV’s next killer app
TV makers have some reason to celebrate these days: Streaming has officially surpassed cable and broadcast as the most popular form of TV consumption; smart TVs are increasingly replacing external streaming devices; and the makers of these TVs have largely figured out how to turn those one-time purchases into recurring revenue streams, thanks to ad-supported services.

What TV makers need is a new killer app. Consumer electronics companies have for some time toyed with the idea of using TV for all kinds of additional purposes, including gaming, smart home functionality and fitness. Ad-supported video took priority over those use cases over the past few years, but now, TV brands need new ways to differentiate their devices.

Turning the TV into the most useful screen in the house holds a lot of promise for the industry. To truly embrace this trend, TV makers might have to take some bold bets and be willing to push the envelope on what’s possible in the living room.

 


From DSC:
What if smart TVs’ new killer app was a next-generation learning-related platform? Could smart TVs deliver more blended/hybrid learning? Hyflex-based learning?
.

The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

.

Or what if smart TVs had to do with delivering telehealth-based apps? Or telelegal/virtual courts-based apps?


 

From DSC:
I need to learn a lot more about the benefits and the threats/downsides of blockchain-based technologies. Here are two different takes on whether blockchain should be implemented or not — though the second one may be a prime example of the first article (a scam, hyping a tech up for investment purposes, other):

1) ‘Blockchain is bunk’: Crypto critics find their voice — from protocol.com by Benjamin Pimentel
John Stark, founding chief of the SEC’s Office of Internet Enforcement, is joining other experts in a major gathering of crypto skeptics.

Excerpts:

More than 20 years later, Stark is speaking out against what he considers a new wave of fraud. But this time he’s also taking aim at the technology that he says the scammers are using: cryptocurrencies and blockchain.

There are so many aspects to it, whether you’re talking about bitcoin and the greater fool theory, or the externalities of ransomware and drug dealing and human sex trafficking, or the financial systemic risk created by cryptocurrency or the real bluster, hype and nonsensical belief in blockchain. There’s so many reasons to be skeptical of cryptocurrency.

Seven or eight years ago, I was willing to entertain the thought that this might be something someday. But I’m just done with that. Because there came a point in my research, my writing and my experience, where I just felt like it’s really shameless.

From my perspective, I think the magnificence of this conference is that it’s the first in history to really present these experts who are going to come together for the first time in a way that presents every angle. Because it’s a multifaceted situation. There are hundreds of cryptocurrency conferences, and they are all these lovefests where everyone just sits around and talks about how great it is, because they’re all getting rich from it.

I don’t mean to sound cynical, but that’s the truth. That’s the reality. So it’s a bit of an antidote for that illness, which plagues the space right now.

 

2) The Biggest Change to our Financial System in 50 Years is Happening in November… — from medium.com by Richard Knight
International Payments are moving to the blockchain (ISO 20022)

Excerpt:

Many cryptocurrency investors are looking to reap massive returns as the 50-year-old international payments system moves onto the blockchain beginning in November 2022.

This is part of what is known as ISO 20022, a single standardization approach to be used by all financial standards initiatives. The new standardization is set to officially begin in November 2022 and be fully implemented by November 2025.

There are many cryptocurrencies that will be integrated into this new financial system, referred to as ISO 20022 compliment cryptocurrencies and there is much speculation these cryptocurrencies will soar in price once the standard is implemented.

 


Also relevant/see:


 

What role do CFOs play in the Great Resignation? — from chieflearningofficer.com by Keith Keating

Excerpt:

People are unhappy with their jobs, opportunities and employers’ treatment. Many feel constricted and unable to advance their careers because their companies fail to provide efficient learning and development programs. According to a McKinsey report, 41 percent of employees said the lack of opportunity for professional progress was the principal reason they left.

Their workplaces had no room for personal or career growth, forcing them to look elsewhere. Moreover, 94 percent said they wouldn’t resign their jobs had their employers invested in learning and development.

That is a grave problem. Gallup’s 2021 report found that turnover costs one trillion dollars to U.S. businesses per year.

Would companies be able to prevent this issue if their chief financial officers took L&D programs more seriously?

From DSC:
That seems like a very solid question to me.


Also relevant/see:

Succession Planning Requires Continuous Learning Culture — from learningsolutionsmag.com by Pamela Hogle


 

The Multidisciplinary Approach to Thinking — from fs.blog by Peter Kaufman; with thanks to Robert Ferraro for this resource

Excerpt:

Peter Kaufman is one of the most successful businessmen of our time, and yet few people have ever heard of him. He’s the CEO of Glenair, an aerospace company based in California, and the editor of Poor Charlie’s Almanack, a book about Charlie Munger.

This speech was to the California Polytechnic State University Pomona Economics Club. The transcript and audio are reproduced here with the permission of Peter Kaufman.

As with many “conversational” talks given without notes, it’s better to listen to the audio to pick up on subtleties that won’t come across in the lightly edited transcript.

There is a simple takeaway. Using a true multidisciplinary understanding of things, Peter identifies two often overlooked, parabolic “Big Ideas”: 1) Mirrored Reciprocation (go positive and go first) and 2) Compound Interest (being constant). A great “Life Hack” is to simply combine these two into one basic approach to living your life: “Go positive and go first, and be constant in doing it.”

 
© 2024 | Daniel Christian