staying relevant

From DSC:
The items below reminded me that things aren’t looking good for higher education these days. Having a son a quarter of the way through college makes this even more relevant/personal for our family.

The Big Quit | Even tenure-line professors are leaving academe. — from chronicle.com by Joshua Doležal

Excerpts:

We have become accustomed to the exodus of graduate students, postdocs, and adjuncts, but before Covid it was still possible to see tenured and tenure-track faculty members as relatively immune from the stresses of working in higher ed. No more. A 2020 study by The Chronicle and Fidelity Investments found that more than half of all faculty members surveyed were seriously weighing options outside of higher education: either changing careers entirely or retiring early.

“If a return to normal simply means restoring the burnout conditions that the pandemic inflamed, then the rumble of faculty members leaving may build to a roar that no amount of magical thinking can explain away.”

Here’s a relevant quote from a weekly newsletter — Teaching — from The Chronicle of Higher Education (by Becky Supiano)

The bottom line? “You don’t get student success,” McClure says, “unless you have invested in faculty well-being.”

The quote is from Kevin McClure, who is “trying to get the challenges front-line faculty and staff face on the radar of more college leaders.” As primarily a former staff member, I appreciate that he’s including staff members here. Staff are important members of the academe as well.

Drop in Spring-2022 Enrollment Is Worse Than Expected — from chronicle.com by Audrey Williams June

Excerpt:

New data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center provide a final tally on enrollment for the spring of 2022 — and reveal a persistent trend: College attendance continues to decline.

Undergraduate enrollment fell 4.7 percent from a year earlier, a shortfall of more than 662,000 students. Since the pandemic began, the undergraduate student body has dropped by almost 1.4 million students.

But also in play, he said, are students who increasingly question the value of college, are wary about taking out student loans to pay for it, and who have options to join the labor market instead.

Michigan colleges experience nation’s worst spring enrollment dive, new report shows — from mlive.com by Samuel Dodge

Excerpt:

College enrollment across Michigan plummeted 15% during the spring semester this year, dragged down by a 20% hit to four-year public universities, a new report shows. Spring enrollment across all sectors dropped to 360,220 students, a decrease of more than 62,000 from 2021 to this year, according to data released Thursday, May 26, by the National Student Clearinghouse.

[Cost of Inequity] The Student Loan Crisis — from businessinsidre.com by various
How the student loan industry put a $1.7 trillion price tag on the American dream and the proposed reforms that could pay the bill.

A somewhat-related item:

The Future of Higher Education Is the Hybrid Campus — from campustechnology.com by Dr. Jeffrey R. Docking
Blending the best of face-to-face instruction with the flexibility of online learning can enhance the higher ed experience for all types of learners, lower the cost of a degree and better prepare students for the workforce.

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

What Students Want
Students and families are increasingly rethinking whether a traditional college education is worth the investment, leaving higher ed leaders searching for innovative ways to showcase their school’s value and entice students. When we think about what students really want, they want more than a degree — they want skills training that will ensure a well-paying, rewarding career. In fact, 62% of college students say they would be more likely to re-enroll if their institution offered “new programs and certificates tailored to the new economy” with high-demand majors and education that connects them to employability. This makes sense since employers are continuing to find value in students developing a “broad skill base that can be applied across a range of contexts.”

But over the last several years, and after seeing the success of it at Adrian College, I’ve become convinced that the future of residential colleges is not face-to-face or online, but an intelligent blend of both modalities.

A somewhat-related item:

Navigating career turbulence — from ted.com by Adam Grant; with thanks to Deirdre Honner for this resource

Description:

Everyone’s career will hit some turbulence at some point. Instead of pushing harder against the headwinds, we’re sometimes better off tilting our rudder and charting a new course. In this episode, host Adam Grant speaks with people who have taken unusual steps to battle uncertainty, rethought their approach to finding and landing a job and reached out for help in unexpected places — as well as an expert on recessions who forecasts the future by looking to the past. Listen and subscribe to WorkLife with Adam Grant and more podcasts from the TED Audio Collective wherever you’re listening to this.

“Airbnb’s design for employees to live and work anywhere” — now apply that to a school, college, or university [Barrett]

On 05/11/2022, in Australia, blended learning, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, education, experimentation, face-to-face, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, hybrid learning, Hyflex learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, participation, platforms, reinvent, remote teaching and learning, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, society, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, teachers, technologies for your home, universities, videoconferencing, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Airbnb’s design for employees to live and work anywhere — from news.airbnb.com; with thanks to Tom Barrett for this resource

Excerpt:

Airbnb is in the business of human connection above all else, and we believe that the most meaningful connections happen in person. Zoom is great for maintaining relationships, but it’s not the best way to deepen them. Additionally, some creative work and collaboration is best done when you’re in the same room. I’d like working at Airbnb to feel like you’re working at one of the most creative places on Earth, and this will only happen with some in-person collaboration time.

The right solution should combine the best of the digital world and the best of the physical world. It should have the efficiency of Zoom, while providing the meaningful human connection that only happens when people come together. We have a solution that we think combines the best of both worlds.

We’ve designed a way for you to live and work anywhere—while collaborating in a highly coordinated way, and experiencing the in-person connection that makes Airbnb special. Our design has five key features…

Now, a thought exercise on that item from Tom Barrett:

While you are there, extend the thought experiment and imagine the new policy for a school, college or university.

You can work from home or the office
You can move anywhere in the country you work in, and your compensation won’t change
You have the flexibility to travel and work around the world
We’ll meet up regularly for team gatherings, off-sites, and social events
We’ll continue to work in a highly coordinated way

From DSC:
As a reflection on this thought experiment, this graphic comes to my mind again. Teachers, professors, trainers, staff, and students can be anywhere in the world:

Learning from the living class room

One-time jailhouse lawyer creates legal jobs program for the formerly incarcerated [Reynolds]

On 04/29/2022, in active learning, adult learning, career development, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legislatures / government / legal, real-world assignments, reinvent, society, staying relevant, surviving, United States, by Daniel Christian

One-time jailhouse lawyer creates legal jobs program for the formerly incarcerated — from abajournal.com by Matt Reynolds

Excerpts:

Devon Simmons, co-founder and project director of a new program helping those with past convictions find work as paralegals and other jobs in the legal profession, says there’s a wealth of untapped legal talent among formerly incarcerated people.
…
Simmons emerged from prison 15 years later. By that time, he was a product of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice’s Prison-to-College Pipeline program and later graduated with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.

“Once I came home, I would constantly see people unemployed who I had sat in the law library with,” Simmons says. “These individuals have legal expertise, but they’re not given the opportunity to utilize it. What if I could create a platform in which I could make that happen?”

Hmmm…many colleges & universities keep a close eye on their peers…but who is a peer? [Christian]

On 04/20/2022, in 21st century, colleges, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, ideas, innovation, law schools, leadership, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, liberal arts, lifelong learning, more voice more choice more control, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, organizational change, pace of change, reinvent, society, staying relevant, strategy, surviving, training / L&D, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, vocational / trades, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Hmmm…many colleges and universities keep a close eye on their peers and often respond with similar strategies that their peers are pursuing. But who is an organization’s peer? The Chronicle of Higher Education‘s posting below — “How a College Decides Who Its Peers Are” — stated that “there is clearly no shared definition of what constitutes a peer institution.”

Plus, I found this item especially interesting:

Harvard University selected only three peer institutions: Yale, Princeton, and Stanford. But 22 institutions, including Bowdoin, named Harvard as a peer. Bowdoin, a small, liberal-arts college with about 1,800 undergraduate students and no graduate programs, chose 98 “peers,” including the entire Ivy League and many large universities, some of which enroll more than 10,000 students. Bowdoin itself was picked by 35 institutions as a peer. All of them were small, liberal-arts colleges or universities that primarily serve undergraduates.

I have often thought that colleges and universities should care far less about what their peers are doing. Rather, they should move forward with their own solid visions, bold actions, and well-thought-through strategies — as there can be a great deal of danger and risk in the status quo.

Too many alternatives have been appearing — and will likely continue to appear — on the lifelong learning landscapes. Most likely, these new organizations will offer in-demand credentials/skills as well as the capabilities of helping people constantly reinvent themselves — with far less expensive price tags associated with these types of offerings.

How a College Decides Who Its Peers Are — from chronicle.com by Susan Poser
Questions of institutional identity are at the core of the process.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The mismatch between whom an institution chose as peers, and the colleges that reciprocated, pervades the data set. It raises the question of how institutions designate peers, which is a mystery. In some cases it is likely to be decided by someone in the Office of Institutional Research or the provost’s office in response to the Ipeds survey, while in others perhaps some process leads to a consensus among administrators. Regardless, there is clearly no shared definition of what constitutes a peer institution.

Also relevant/see:

Who Does Your College Think Its Peers Are? — from chronicle.com by Jacquelyn Elias
‘An Art and a Science’: Colleges’ Tricky Task of Selecting Peers — from chronicle.com by Audrey Williams June

“Colleges Are Hiring. But Do People Want to Work There?” [McClure] + other changes in the K12 and higher education ecosystems

On 04/08/2022, in adjunct faculty, career development, colleges, community colleges, education reform, faculty, higher education, K-12 related, leadership, learning ecosystem, reinvent, society, staying relevant, strategy, surviving, teachers, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Colleges Are Hiring. But Do People Want to Work There? — from chronicle.com by Kevin R. McClure
Higher ed used to be insulated from the whims of the labor market. No more.

Excerpts:

This perhaps comes as a surprise to some college hiring officials. For a long time, colleges have operated under the assumption that they can easily replace people. And until recently, that was true. Colleges were viewed as places where employees can enact their values, where jobs were spared the ravages of recessions, and where deep relationships can be forged with students and colleagues. When someone left a job, institutions would post the opening and often receive more than enough applicants, especially for faculty positions. Why try hard to retain someone if you can always count on a deep pool of applicants?

That rosy vision of higher education was already starting to sour prior to the pandemic. And after the last two years, it isn’t safe to assume we can field the same numbers of applicants.

That’s largely because employee morale at colleges is tanking. Some in the industry have told me it’s the lowest they’ve ever seen. There are several likely reasons for it, including low pay and frustration that administrations aren’t taking health concerns of frontline workers during the pandemic seriously enough. But perhaps the biggest cause for the drop in morale is understaffing. Higher-education workers are exhausted from years of employment rolls that aren’t just lean — they’re malnourished.

Has the Campus Workplace Changed Forever? — from chronicle.com by Megan Zahneis
College leaders are trying different strategies to adapt to a new reality.

Excerpt:

Despite hopeful signs that the worst of the pandemic is behind us, there is a growing understanding that remote and hybrid work, at least in some form, is here to stay. With the benefit of hindsight and enough time to consider things more thoughtfully, institutional leaders and academic administrators are increasingly engaging with essential questions about remote work: What is the best way to manage teams at a distance? What does it take to recruit, retain, and engage faculty and staff members? What can higher education learn from other industries that have long embraced telecommuting?

Also relevant/see:

Our Nation’s Teachers Are Hustling to Survive — from edsurge.com by Emily Tate
Nearly 1 in 5 American public school teachers work a second job outside of the classroom. Why is this their reality?

Rothrock’s story is not exceptional—at least in her line of work, in this country. If she were any other highly educated American professional, that might be different. But Rothrock is a teacher. That a teacher must work a second, part-time job on weeknights and weekends, year-round, more than 20 years into her career, in spite of a master’s degree and a modest lifestyle, is so universally accepted among her peers and colleagues in education that it barely warrants notice.

It’s (Past) Time to Redesign the Teaching Profession — from by Katie Kimbrell

Excerpts:

According to a recent Forbes article, national research found that 54% of teachers surveyed in 2021 are considering leaving the teaching profession within the next two years. More urgently, Edweek reported that 48% of teachers have considered quitting in the last 30 days.

To be clear, these numbers are cataclysmic.

Our local numbers are probably not dissimilar from elsewhere in the country: According to a regional study by LeanLab Education, teacher burnout was among the top three challenges mentioned consistently by the near 250 educators surveyed. In a recent online survey by Kansas PAC, Freedom to Learn, 78% of teachers (of 780 responses) would not recommend their profession to students, while 80% of teachers would not recommend their profession to friends and family.

When it comes to the teaching profession, what we’ve designed simply isn’t working anymore (when and if it ever did is another debate).

Reflections on “The University in Ruins” [Neem]

On 04/06/2022, in 21st century, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), business side of he, career development, change, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, faculty, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, higher education, history, innovation, leadership, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, pace of change, reinvent, social learning / networks, social media, society, staying relevant, strategy, streams of content, surviving, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

The University in Ruins — from chronicle.com by Johann N. Neem
The “innovations” that promise to save higher ed are a farce.

From DSC:
First of all, I appreciated Johann Neem mentioning and/or discussing several books in one posting:

Ronald G. Musto’s The Attack on Higher Education (2021)
Arthur Levine’s and Scott J. Van Pelt’s The Great Upheaval (2021)
Bill Readings’ The University in Ruins (1996)
Ronald J. Daniels’ What Universities Owe Democracy (2021)

And as a disclosure here, I have not read those books.

Below are excerpts with some of my comments:

It’s already happening. Today, we walk among the ruins of an institution that once had a larger purpose. It’s not clear what role universities should play in society, and to what or to whom they are accountable, other than their corporate interests.

To some, that’s not a problem, at least according to Arthur Levine and Scott J. Van Pelt in The Great Upheaval (2021). They see higher education undergoing the same transformation that reshaped the music, film, and newspaper industries. Rather than place-based education overseen by tenured professors, they anticipate “the rise of anytime, anyplace, consumer-driven content and source agnostic, unbundled, personalized education paid for by subscription.”

Between Musto’s existential fears of disruption and Levine and Van Pelt’s embrace of it lies a third path. It takes the form of a wager — outlined by Ronald J. Daniels in What Universities Owe Democracy (2021) — that universities can and should continue to matter because of their importance in civic democratic life.

The article covers how the learning ecosystems within higher education have morphed from their religious roots to being an apparatus of the nation-state to then becoming a relatively independent bureaucratic system to other things and to where we are today.

Along the journey discussing these things, one of the things that caught my eye was this statement:

Hopkins, in this sense, lived up to its founding president Daniel Coit Gilman’s 19th-century aspiration that universities be places that acquire, conserve, refine, and distribute knowledge.

From DSC:
While I completely agree with that aspiration, I think more institutions of higher education could follow what John Hopkins University did with their efforts concerning the Covid-19 situation, as Neem mentioned. Generally speaking, institutions of higher education are not distributing knowledge to the levels that Gilman envisioned years ago.

In fact, these days those working within K12 are doing a whole lot better at sharing information with society than those who work within higher education are. For example, when I search Twitter for K12 educators who share content on Twitter, they are out there all over the place — and many with tens of thousands of followers. They share information with parents, families, fellow educators, students, school boards, and others. Yet this is not the case for those working in higher education. Faculty members normally:

aren’t out on Twitter
don’t blog
don’t have a podcast
don’t write for society at large. Instead, their expertise is often locked up — existing behind paywalls in academic journals. In other words, they talk to each other.

Later on…

As Daniels intuits, without a larger purpose to hold them fast, there is nothing to prevent universities from being buffeted by winds until they have lost direction. That is what Readings foresaw: Globalization liberates universities from national fetters, but at the risk of ruin.

From DSC:
While globalization may have something to do with universities becoming unanchored from their original purposes, globalization isn’t at the top of my mind when I reflect upon what’s been happening with colleges and universities these last few decades.

To see but one area of massive change, let’s take a brief look at college sports. There are now multimillion-dollar stadium projects, enormous coaches’ salaries, and numerous situations where tax-paying citizens can’t even watch sporting events without tons of advertisements being thrown into their faces every few seconds. Personally speaking, on numerous occasions, I couldn’t even access the games at all — as I wasn’t paying for the subscriptions to the appropriate providers.

Also, as another example of becoming anchored — and going back to the 1980’s — I attended Northwestern University for my undergraduate degree in Economics. While I have several wonderful lifelong friends from that experience for whom I’m deeply grateful, even back then NU had already moved far away from its motto which is based on Philippians 4:8.

Instead, please allow me to tell you what that learning community taught me and strongly encouraged me to think about:

You are only successful if you have the corner office, drive the higher numbered BMW’s, and have many people reporting to you.
If you make a lot of money.
You are supposed to compete against others vs. being in relationships with others. As but one example here, our test scores were published — by our Social Security numbers — outside our professors’ offices for all to see how we measured up to our classmates.

In fact, I’m not even sure that I would use the word “community” at all when I reflect upon my years at Northwestern. Instead, a WIIFM approach was encouraged (i.e., What’s In It For Me? where you are supposed to look out for #1). It took me years to unlearn some of those “lessons” and “learnings.”

But I realize that that’s not the case with all learning communities.

As Neem alluded to, I love the idea that an institution of higher education can — and often does — impact students’ hearts as well as minds. That was the focus at Calvin College (now Calvin University). Our oldest daughter went there and she was profoundly and positively influenced by her experiences there. In that context, students were encouraged to be in relationships with one another. There was plenty of hugging, praying for one another, etc. going on in that setting. There truly was community there.

***

Neem doesn’t think much of Levine’s and Van Pelt’s perspectives. He claims there’s nothing new in their book. He seems to discard the arguments being made about the cost of higher ed and, like many others, clings to the intellectual roots/purpose of higher ed.

While I’m not against intellect or pursuing knowledge — in fact, I’m all for it — I just have a problem when the price of doing so continues to become out of reach for soooooo many people.

Personally, I’ve tried to lower the cost of obtaining a degree within higher education for many years…but I was/we were only successful in doing so for a few years (and that was during a pilot of online-based learning). Yohan Na and I created the graphic below in 2008 for example — as I was trying to raise awareness of the dangers of the status quo:
.

.

So from a cost/access perspective, Levine’s and Van Pelt’s perspectives here sound pretty good to me. It appears to be much more affordable and realistic for the masses. Otherwise, the image/reality of the ivory tower is maintained…allowing “intellectuals” to continue to live and operate within their own sphere/hive/tribe.

Also, we need an AI-backed system of presenting which skills are needed and then how to get them. The ways things are set up today, institutions of traditional higher education have not been able to deal with the current pace of change out there.

As a final comment here…
The changing directions/purposes of institutions of higher education present a good example of why I entitled this blog Learning Ecosystems — as the systems that we use to learn and grow in are constantly morphing:

People come and go
Tools and vendors come and go
Purposes, focuses, and/or mission statements change
Our sources of information (i.e., our streams of content) come and go
Etc.

A Skills-First Blueprint to Better Job Outcomes [] Karin Kimbrough

On 04/06/2022, in adult learning, career development, change, reinvent, skills, staying relevant, surviving, training / L&D, workplace, by Daniel Christian

A Skills-First Blueprint to Better Job Outcomes — from linkedin.com by Karin Kimbrough
As Chief Economist at LinkedIn, I lead a team of economists and data scientists that unearth the most interesting insights from over 800M global members. Every month I’ll share a snapshot of key trends to help shed light on where the world of work is headed. This month, we’re looking at new findings around the shift to a skills-first talent ecosystem.

An excerpt from that last link/posting which is entitled “A Skills-First Blueprint for Better Job Outcomes”:

A few key findings:

Skills are Changing
The Pandemic Pulled the Future Forward
Skills-First Hiring Can Work for Both Job Seekers and Hiring Managers
Identifying Similar Skills Helps Workers Pivot to New Roles
Amidst the Great Reshuffle, Investing in Skills is a Key to Retention

Will Your College Survive the Demographic Cliff? [Boeckenstedt]

On 03/26/2022, in adjunct faculty, business side of he, colleges, community colleges, dangers of the status quo, faculty, higher education, reinvent, staying relevant, surviving, trends, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Will Your College Survive the Demographic Cliff? — from chronicle.com by Jon Boeckenstedt
National trends are interesting — but enrolling students is a local challenge.

Excerpts:

We are at a critical moment: Declining enrollment even in one sector (say, community colleges) is troublesome because of downstream effects. Declining revenue and wavering state support, coupled with fewer high-school graduates, fewer families that don’t need financial help, and an increasingly negative attitude from the public toward higher education, may take us to a long-rumored tipping point.

If it’s true that all politics is local, then in some sense so is (almost) all college enrollment.

Where’s the upskilling and reskilling market headed? — from edtechreview.in by Priyanka Gupta
Upskilling and Reskilling are the new buzzwords in the edtech industry and corporate learning. With times changing at light speed, unlearning and relearning have become the norm.

Excerpt:

To understand more about the reskilling and Upskilling market, read further about:

The Need of Upskilling and Reskilling
Workforce Shift and The Upcoming Trends
The Key Element in the Future of Upskilling
The Challenges Ahead

Life of Technical Skills
Technical skills change rapidly. The industry standards for technologies and processes shift more quickly than any education system can turn out leaders. A survey by Prudential reveals that only 46% of working professionals think their skills will make them competitive in the coming ten years. Unless the skill providers speed up their initiatives or programs’ design, development and deployment, organisations and professionals will struggle to find relevancy in jobs and employees relating to skill levels with the dynamic nature of technology and related jobs.

Hybrid learning for hybrid jobs: Reskilling for the digital age [Porcaro]

On 03/13/2022, in blended learning, business, communities of practice, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, hybrid learning, instructional design, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, reinvent, skills, staying relevant, training / L&D, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Hybrid learning for hybrid jobs: Reskilling for the digital age — from chieflearningofficer.com by David Porcaro
Just as “hybrid jobs” have become “jobs,” the old definition of “hybrid learning” that mixes in-person and online experiences is fast becoming just “learning.” It’s incumbent on employers, training providers and learners themselves to ensure that as we navigate that shift, we’re building a more meaningful and productive learning experience in the process.

What would happen if we reimagined hybrid learning as “learning that equips workers for hybrid jobs,” and built a new approach from there? That’s the question we’ve been working to answer at General Assembly, where our work with employers across a range of fields — from the tech industry to retail and manufacturing — has helped us understand what it takes for learners to be successful in the digital age. Our learning philosophy focuses on four key goals, which could form the building blocks of a new definition of hybrid learning.

Also relevant/see:

Leveraging experiential learning in a hybrid world — from chieflearningofficer.com by George Hallenbeck
The disruption brought on by the shift to hybrid work provides excellent opportunities for experiential learning. By balancing intentionality with support and maximizing the quantity, quality and diversity of learning experiences, both organizations and individual leaders can adapt and thrive in this new era of work.

US Department of Labor announces availability of $55M in grants to provide pre-release training, employment services to incarcerated people

On 03/09/2022, in adult learning, career development, funding / grants, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, reinvent, society, staying relevant, surviving, by Daniel Christian

US Department of Labor announces availability of $55M in grants to provide pre-release training, employment services to incarcerated people
Funding aims to improve employment opportunities, meet needs of local labor market

WASHINGTON – Each year, state prisons release approximately 573,000 people who need the resources and support to re-enter and find stable employment in their communities successfully.

Pre-release services have proven to help reduce the likelihood that formerly incarcerated people will return to prison and help these individuals fully reintegrate into their communities. To support this effort, the U.S. Department of Labor today announced the availability of $55 million in Pathway Home 3 Grants that seek to reduce barriers to employment by providing training and employment services to incarcerated individuals before their release from state correctional facilities, or county or local jails. Funds will also support continued comprehensive services post-release.

Authorized by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, Pathway Home 3 Grants will fund projects to serve adults convicted under federal, state or local law and who are scheduled for release within 20 to 270 days from the time they enroll in the project.

The department’s Employment and Training Administration will award up to 15 grant projects – ranging from $1 million to $4 million each – to teach returning citizens foundational skills such as job readiness and job search strategies, and to provide apprenticeships and occupational training leading to industry-recognized credentials.

Organizations seeking grants must partner with a state correctional facility or a local or county jail. Applicants are encouraged to collaborate with employers, industry organizations or union partners to commit to providing work experience, onsite job-related mentoring and post-release employment opportunities for participants. Successful applicants will provide training that leads to in-demand skills to meet the needs of local employers.

Building on the findings from the Linking Employment Activities Pre-Release implementation study, the grants are designed to help eliminate the time gap between release from prison and enrollment into a workforce development reentry program leading to skills-based employment.

Learn more about the Department of Labor’s Reentry Employment Opportunities program.

Corporate Leaders Lag in Digital Skills; L&D Can Help — from learningsolutionsmag.com by Pamela Hogle

Excerpt:

As we move into a reality where digital skills dominate and the pandemic has pushed many organizations to accelerate their digital transitions, a yawning skills gap has become apparent: Fewer than a third of digital leaders rate themselves as “effective in digital acumen” according to the DDI Global Leadership Forecast.

But HR and leaders rank digital acumen, which is seen as “a significant predictor not only for digital transformation readiness, but also for innovation and responding to the competitive environment,” as a must-have skill, the DDI report said.

This gap is bad for business. “The world’s most digitally mature companies lead all other companies in value creation. They also have proved much more resilient during the crisis,” research by the Boston Consulting Group found.

Also from learningsolutionsmag.com see:

Accelerated Digital Skills and the ‘Bootcamp Boom’. [holoniq.com]

On 03/01/2022, in Africa, Alternatives, Asia, Australia, business, Canada, career development, changing business models, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, education technology, Europe, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, India, innovation, languages and translation, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, marketplaces, new business models, organizational change, platforms, programming, reinvent, skills, staying relevant, STEAM-related, technology (general), universities, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Accelerated Digital Skills and the ‘Bootcamp Boom’. — from holoniq.com
The market for accelerated digital skills is stepping up to a whole new level. Bootcamps, among others, are evolving rapidly to meet the opportunity.

Excerpt:

Tech Bootcamps re-skilled and up-skilled over 100,000 professionals globally in 2021, up from less than 20,000 in 2015. We expect this number to reach over 380,000 by 2025 representing over $3B of expenditure with significant upside as tech up-skilling models and modes overlap and converge. Governments, employers, universities and colleges everywhere are embracing rapid, high ROI training to build capacity in software, marketing, cyber and tech sales to drive their economies and growth.

Also from holoniq.com, see:

Global EdTech 1000. 2021 Stats and 2022 Applications Open
Benchmarking the 2021 Global EdTech 1000 as we open applications for 2022

Also relevant/see:

What’s the most effective way to find qualified tech candidates in unlikely places? — from

The Future of Education | Gerd Leonhard

On 02/08/2022, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), Canada, career development, change, changing business models, creativity, education, education reform, emerging technologies, Emotion, ethics, Europe, future, future of higher education, heutagogy, higher education, India, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP), pace of change, real-world assignments, reinvent, robotics, skills, society, staying relevant, STEAM-related, student-related, trends, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vocational / trades, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, workplace, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

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As seen/accessible from this page.

A brief insert from DSC:
Another futurist Thomas Frey has some thoughts along this same line.

#Canada #education #future #trends #careerdevelopment #change #paceofchange #automation #robotics #education #AI #learnhowtolearn #unlearn #learningecosystems #lifelonglearning #endofroutine #experientiallearning

Machines are for answers. Humans are for questions.

Also relevant/see:

Next-Gen Skills Essential To Fill In The Curriculum Gap For Modern World Education — from edtechreview.in by Ravi Bhushan
5 tips to avoid “foresight burnout” — from thefuturesschool.com

S&P raises view of higher ed sector for 2022, but colleges’ fortunes are diverging [Seltzer]

On 01/30/2022, in business side of he, colleges, dangers of the status quo, higher education, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, online learning, reinvent, skills, staying relevant, strategy, surviving, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

S&P raises view of higher ed sector for 2022, but colleges’ fortunes are diverging — from highereddive.com by Rick Seltzer

Excerpts:

S&P Global Ratings revised its view of the U.S. not-for-profit higher education sector to stable, ending four years of negative outlooks even as it said it is monitoring divergence in fortunes between strong and weak institutions in the market.

Some stressed institutions will be able to leverage high-value real estate, branding or strong programs into a merger or affiliation, according to the ratings agency. But with colleges competing for often-shrinking pools of students, S&P expects more closures — especially of small, regional, private liberal arts colleges.

Also see:

Breaking Down Online Postsecondary Enrollment Growth in the United States — from holoniq.com
Welcome to the multi-speed online enrollment economy. The highs and the lows of the top 20+ institutions.

Digital capability is arguably the number one priority for US universities and colleges. Postsecondary enrollments in the United States are in decline, institutions are bracing for a much bigger 2025 enrollment crash (due to a falling birthrate from the last recession) and a tight labor market is encouraging employers to drop requirements such as degrees and instead embrace faster, cheaper and higher ROI online up-skilling programs.

Learning Ecosystems

One-time jailhouse lawyer creates legal jobs program for the formerly incarcerated [Reynolds]

Hmmm…many colleges & universities keep a close eye on their peers…but who is a peer? [Christian]

A Skills-First Blueprint to Better Job Outcomes [] Karin Kimbrough

Will Your College Survive the Demographic Cliff? [Boeckenstedt]

Where’s the upskilling and reskilling market headed? [Gupta]

Hybrid learning for hybrid jobs: Reskilling for the digital age [Porcaro]

US Department of Labor announces availability of $55M in grants to provide pre-release training, employment services to incarcerated people

Corporate Leaders Lag in Digital Skills; L&D Can Help [Hogle]

S&P raises view of higher ed sector for 2022, but colleges’ fortunes are diverging [Seltzer]

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