workplace

Will Microcredentials be the Rx Needed to Fix Our Ailing Degree Systems? — from evolllution.com by David Leaser | Senior Program Executive of Innovation and Growth Initiatives, IBM
Amidst the dramatic social and economic upheaval caused by the pandemic, microcredentials are presenting themselves as the viable solution to getting learners prepared quickly and effectively for desperately needed jobs.

Excerpts:

Pace of Change Accelerates Beyond Our Wildest Imagination
But the world of work is changing at a pace that traditional education systems cannot match. Cloud computing, big data and AI technologies are replaced or improved monthly—and often faster than that.
…
The U.S. college system is organized around an all-or-none framework: You only get a credential after completing the entire learning path. But when a large number of students cannot commit to a long-term commitment (the situation we have faced for decades), shouldn’t we break the learning down into credentials along the way?
…
The MicroBachelors: A Major Win for Credential As You Go
Today, most microcredentials provide the opposite of college degrees: high skill-signal strength but low social-signal strength.
…
MicroBachelors programs are a series of college classes that have been customized and grouped together to meet employers’ real-world needs. The programs typically take two to four months to complete and provide credentials and college credits.

Report Finds US Workers Lagging in Digital Skills [Mello]

On 12/02/2021, in 21st century, career development, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, economics, future, game-changing environment, professional development, skills, society, training / L&D, United States, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Report Finds US Workers Lagging in Digital Skills — from technewsworld.com by John P. Mello Jr.

Excerpt:

Many Americans lack the digital skills needed to be productive members of the workforce in the 21st century, according to a report released Monday by a Washington, D.C. think tank.

One-third of U.S. workers lack digital skills, with 13 percent having no digital skills and 18 percent having, at best, limited digital skills, noted the report by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a science and technology institute.

In essence, the ITIF reported, one in six working-age Americans are unable to use email, web search, or other basic online tools.

Also see:

Hybrid skills are ascendant in the post-pandemic talent economy — from chieflearningofficer.com by Michelle Weise
We now face a tight labor market with fewer resources to pull from when it comes to human capital.

Even though we may not be able to predict the jobs of the future, we can begin to crack the labor market code in today’s economy and home in on the hybrid, or human and technical skills that will help working-age adults prepare for the jobs of today and tomorrow.

Make Room for Creativity in Learning from Early Design Stage [Brandon]

On 11/17/2021, in adult learning, art, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, drama/theater, learning, Learning Experience Design, participation, play, training / L&D, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Make Room for Creativity in Learning from Early Design Stage — from learningsolutionsmag.com by Bill Brandon

Excerpt:

Change the paradigm: Invite learners to create
Learning leaders can change this by encouraging their teams to add creative activities for the learners to participate in. Here are some examples of what participants in a learning program can create:

Stories from their own workplace or from the work they aspire to do
Presentations with diagrams showing new processes that can be put in place based on what was learned
Vision boards made from collages showing their hopes for an improved environment
Zoom improvs portraying interpersonal relationships in a playful way
Answers to a question from the facilitator in a chatroom

The EdSurge Product Index

About:

Since 2012, the EdSurge Product Index has been the first stop for educators in search of learning technology solutions. The redesigned EdSurge Product Index_(BETA) features enhanced product profiles and validations from trusted education and technology organizations. Now, educators will be able to find the most complete, reliable and up-to-date information available on learning technology products.

Also see:

New Tools for Instructional Design and Development Teams — from learningsolutionsmag.com by Bill Brandon

Timnit Gebru Says Artificial Intelligence Needs to Slow Down — from wired.com by Max Levy
The AI researcher, who left Google last year, says the incentives around AI research are all wrong.

Excerpt:

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RESEARCHERS are facing a problem of accountability: How do you try to ensure decisions are responsible when the decision maker is not a responsible person, but rather an algorithm? Right now, only a handful of people and organizations have the power—and resources—to automate decision-making.
…
Since leaving Google, Gebru has been developing an independent research institute to show a new model for responsible and ethical AI research. The institute aims to answer similar questions as her Ethical AI team, without fraught incentives of private, federal, or academic research—and without ties to corporations or the Department of Defense.

“Our goal is not to make Google more money; it’s not to help the Defense Department figure out how to kill more people more efficiently,” she said.

From DSC:
What does our society need to do to respond to this exponential pace of technological change? And where is the legal realm here?

Speaking of the pace of change…the following quote from The Future Direction And Vision For AI (from marktechpost.com by Imtiaz Adam) speaks to massive changes in this decade as well:

The next generation will feature 5G alongside AI and will lead to a new generation of Tech superstars in addition to some of the existing ones.

In future the variety, volume and velocity of data is likely to substantially increase as we move to the era of 5G and devices at the Edge of the network. The author argues that our experience of development with AI and the arrival of 3G followed by 4G networks will be dramatically overshadowed with the arrival of AI meets 5G and the IoT leading to the rise of the AIoT where the Edge of the network will become key for product and service innovation and business growth.

Also related/see:

AI’s Smarts Now Come With a Big Price Tag — from wired.com by Will Knight
As language models get more complex, they also get more expensive to create and run. Some companies are locked out.

LinkedIn rolls out its freelance services marketplace globally after picking up 2M users in smaller US beta

On 11/02/2021, in career development, entrepreneurship, global / globalization, Microsoft, platforms, workplace, by Daniel Christian

LinkedIn rolls out its freelance services marketplace globally after picking up 2M users in smaller US beta — from techcrunch.com by Ingrid Lunden

Excerpt:

LinkedIn, the Microsoft-owned platform for those connecting with others in their fields of work and those looking for work, has been known best in recruitment for sourcing candidates and advertising job openings for permanent work. Now, to complement that, LinkedIn is opening up a new front in the job market for freelancers.

Today it is taking the wraps off its Service Marketplace, a new feature that will let people advertise themselves for short-term engagements to those looking to hire people for such roles, competing against the likes of Fiverr and Upwork for sourcing skilled knowledge workers.

All aboard: Bitcoin’s rise inspires even big banks to staff up on crypto talent [Anders]

On 11/01/2021, in Blockchain, career development, change, economics, emerging technologies, MBA, society, strategy, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

All aboard: Bitcoin’s rise inspires even big banks to staff up on crypto talent — from linkedin.com by George Anders

Excerpt:

That’s according to a new analysis by LinkedIn’s Economic Graph team, which finds that major financial services firms will add more than three times as many staff steeped in digital-asset experience this year than in 2015. That pace jumped 40% in the first half of 2021 alone, compared with the same period last year.

“The opportunities in digital assets are plentiful,” BNY Mellon’s Roman Regelman, the bank’s CEO of asset servicing and head of digital, told LinkedIn News. “We can now attract talent in a very different way.”

Also relevant, see:

Wharton’s New Crypto Course to Take Crypto for Tuition Fees — from insidehighered.com by Suzanne Smalley
Excerpt:
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania last week announced it would become the first Ivy League school and the first American business school to accept enrollment payments in cryptocurrency via Coinbase. The announcement came alongside news that the prestigious business school also has launched an online certificate program focused on the economics of blockchain and digital assets.

Three Steps to Building a Learning Culture That Delivers Innovation [Mor]

On 10/28/2021, in business, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, culture, innovation, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, ubiquitous learning, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Three Steps to Building a Learning Culture That Delivers Innovation — from sloanreview.mit.edu by Ori Mor
To create technological solutions for grand challenges, companies must foster cultures that support continuous learning and team optimism.

Excerpt:

Now that we’re on the other side, with our system up and running in retail outlets, helping to reduce e-waste (such as cords and batteries), we’re able to look back and see what it took to get here. While the skills of our team were essential, the biggest reason we ultimately succeeded was our culture of continuous learning. Three steps in particular allowed that culture to thrive.

Also relevant — especially to those working in higher education — see:

Why Every Executive Should Be Focusing on Culture Change Now — from sloanreview.mit.edu
To make transformation a reality in their businesses post-pandemic, leaders must build a strong culture to support it.

The new frontier: Why visionary CLOs are switching focus to developing technical teams rather than people managers [Gordon]

On 10/27/2021, in business, career development, change, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, innovation, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, strategy, technology (general), training / L&D, using teams, workplace, by Daniel Christian

The new frontier: Why visionary CLOs are switching focus to developing technical teams rather than people managers — from chieflearningofficer.com by Alastair Gordon
The new frontier for CLOs is this: How do we unleash the untapped potential of our technical experts to gain competitive advantage or community benefit?

Excerpt:

The race to develop talent is changing its focus.

Historically, success relied on developing extraordinary leaders to inspire and lead large groups of people. But today, and in the future, the new challenge for learning teams is to create an edge for their organization by radically improving their development of technical specialists.

Engineers, economists, researchers, software developers and data scientists — they’re in the vanguard of innovation. No other group has the same potential to create value, cut costs or introduce better processes. This trend is seeing early adopter organizations in the vanguard of a shift to rebalance the annual learning budget toward developing technical experts in nontechnical capabilities.

Also relevant/see:

Next-Gen Learning: How to Future-Proof the L&D Function — from learningsolutionsmag.com by Juan Naranjo

Profile of the Legal Profession [American Bar Association (ABA)]

On 10/25/2021, in career development, law schools, Legal operations, legislatures / government / legal, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Profile of the Legal Profession — from the American Bar Association (ABA)

Excerpt from the Legal Education section:

After several years of declining enrollment in legal education, the number of students enrolled at law schools accredited by the American Bar Association increased in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

In 2020, the number of students pursuing a juris doctor degree hit 114,520 – the highest number since 2014. This represented an increase of 1,638 students (or 1.5%) over the previous year. Still, it was far below the high of 147,525 enrolled law school students in 2010.

Enrollment is growing faster for students in non-JD legal programs in law schools – for example, those seeking master of law degrees and certificates. In 2020, there were 21,292 students in these non-JD programs – a 78% increase from 11,973 non-JD students in 2014.

For 2020, there were 63,384 law school applicants, 44,115 of whom were accepted to at least one school, according to the Law School Admission Council.

DC: Saw it last night w/ our daughters. This would a great movie for middle schoolers & high schoolers to see & discuss. I enjoyed it. The impact of social media, algorithms, Silicon Valley personalities/dynamics, privacy & data-related issues, friendship. https://t.co/LAqvNuqUnk

— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) October 25, 2021

jobtensor.com/uk <-- an AI job board

On 10/18/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, Daniel S. Christian, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, UK, workplace, by Daniel Christian

jobtensor.com/uk <– an AI job board from the UK — with thanks to Dr. Jakob Sidoruk for this resource.

From DSC:
Jakob mentioned that Jobtensor has built a tool for jobs in tech, science and engineering and that the goal of this tool is to make job searches more fun and efficient for job seekers. I’m glad to see this from the other side of the table. That is, there have been plenty Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs) out there that have essentially weeded people out time and again — while making many job searches long, expensive, and emotionally draining.

From DSC:
It is exactly this kind of tool that could — and should — be integrated into a next-generation learning platform. Have an AI-enabled system of identifying the most current needs out in the workplace. Provide a mechanism/listing of those needs along with the existing courses, streams of content, podcasts, and more that could help someone learn those skills.

Learning from the living class room

streams of content are ever flowing by -- we need to tap into them and contribute to them

Interesting article: “The college campus is the model for return to office” [Zeng & Deng]

On 10/16/2021, in business, change, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, culture, society, United States, workplace, by Daniel Christian

The college campus is the model for return to office — from by Jiani Zeng Honghao Deng
Using tech to map the spaces we need for the future of work

Excerpt:

Yet while the emergence of new variants continues to frustrate efforts to resume in-person work, the Delta variant alone does not explain why major employers continue to struggle to bring workers back in person. It seems that employees have lost faith in past models of working, which naturally prompts an examination of what a future “ebb and flow” will actually look like.

Well, it’s likely we already know what this new office environment will look like: the university campus.
…
College campuses have spaces that foster collaboration, community and culture — labs, open areas, cafes, not to mention auditoriums and arenas for events, sports and other rituals. But these are opt-in — no one forces you to go to the basketball game. You choose to go. So too companies will want to use their space to foster collaboration and culture for employees to opt into.

Why inexperienced workers can’t get entry-level jobs — from bbc.com by Kate Morgan; with thanks to Ryan Craig for this resource

Excerpt:

As anyone who’s graduated from university or applied for their first job in recent years can attest to, something new – and alarming – has happened to entry-level jobs: they’ve disappeared.

A recent analysis of close to 4 million jobs posted on LinkedIn since late 2017 showed that 35% of postings for “entry-level” positions asked for years of prior relevant work experience. That requirement was even more common in certain industries. More than 60% of listings for entry-level software and IT Services jobs, for instance, required three or more years of experience. In short, it seems entry-level jobs aren’t for people just entering the workforce at all.

“Internships are now the entry level,” he says. “Most of the students in college are doing or trying to do internships, and now it’s increasingly common to do more than one.”

From DSC:
I love the idea of internships. (In my days in college, internships were reserved mainly for engineers; few of us had them back then.)

But with an eye on the cost of obtaining a degree, internships should be PAID internships. That is, interns should receive decent/proper compensation. I’m concerned that businesses will take advantage of free labor here (though that’s less likely given the tight labor market I suppose). But businesses have taken advantage of free labor in the past. “It takes a village…”

Also see:

Virtual work is here to stay. Here’s how colleges can help students land remote internships. — from highereddive.com by Natalie Schwartz
The pandemic disrupted the world of work — and internships. But colleges and employers responded by trying new strategies online.

Learning Ecosystems

Will Microcredentials be the Rx Needed to Fix Our Ailing Degree Systems? [Leaser]

Report Finds US Workers Lagging in Digital Skills [Mello]

Make Room for Creativity in Learning from Early Design Stage [Brandon]

The EdSurge Product Index

LinkedIn rolls out its freelance services marketplace globally after picking up 2M users in smaller US beta

All aboard: Bitcoin’s rise inspires even big banks to staff up on crypto talent [Anders]

Three Steps to Building a Learning Culture That Delivers Innovation [Mor]

The new frontier: Why visionary CLOs are switching focus to developing technical teams rather than people managers [Gordon]

Profile of the Legal Profession [American Bar Association (ABA)]

Interesting article: “The college campus is the model for return to office” [Zeng & Deng]

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