Cutting out the middleman
Corporations are getting involved in student curriculum... could this be the future of higher education?
If the goal of education is to get you the knowledge you need to get the job you want, why not cut out the middleman and learn the skills you need for the job from the employer directly? Google started a certificate program for high school graduates and Honda started a robotics contest for schools to do exactly that. Companies teach students the new economy skills they need from entry level candidates and students learn exactly what they need to be employed, increasing the ROI on their “higher-ed” experience. Seems like a great idea. However this week Jeff Bezos took this idea a step further and decided to get student users while they are young, preschool young. On Tuesday Bezos announced Bezos Academy, a preschool funded by the Bezos Day One Fund, where he has committed over $2 Billion.
The criticism of corporations playing a heavy hand in what students learn is that it eliminates creativity and stunts a student’s full potential. If you decide what you are going to do professionally at too early of an age, are you entering into a system where you can’t achieve beyond the norm? Many critics find that the standardized test system in China, that determines if students get into magnet high schools and then prestigious colleges based on professional vertical, does that - it pushes students to decide at too young of an age what they want to be when they grow up and stops them from the opportunity to be an outlier. But in a pandemic economy where unemployment is holding steady, what should we value? Education that is guaranteed to get you a job (even if it is corporate sponsored), or a liberal arts education where students can explore and reach their full potential? This is a hard one.
Now, keep in mind that Bezos launched Bezos Academy to provide free preschool to underserved students through a philanthropic initiative and has not explicitly talked about Amazon training infiltrating the preschool’s curriculum (it is just coloring and playing with blocks after all), but when the CEO of the world’s largest retailer plays a role in the “supply chain” of education, you have to wonder, what happens if/when corporations decide what we learn? And are we willing to give them that control for jobs?
Traditionally when unemployment is high community colleges see a huge increase in enrollment from students wanting to upskill. When the economy struggles, people go to college to boost their economic prospects, aka get a new job. But the unemployment in this pandemic economy has proven to be very different. If you had asked me in April, I would have told you to bet big on community colleges (which I am still long on, but for other reasons), but enrollment across the U.S. is down by 7.5%. Why? Because most community colleges are holding instruction online and students are having suboptimal experiences with online learning. Also, access to the internet - many of the students who would have normally enrolled in community college don't have good Internet access to begin with, much less a good place in which to study and not be interrupted at home.
As a result, I predict that companies who provide free or low cost education opportunities, in- person or via broadband access zones, will capture the market of students we typically see reskilling at community college during a recession. To answer my earlier question, yes, students will be okay with companies playing a heavy hand in what they learn, because of the sure bet of employment. This is the modern day vocational school. And that trend will only grow as students see the increase in probability of employment on the other side. If community colleges, or any colleges for that matter, want to stay in the game, they are going to have to teach the skills for the job and guarantee employment.
There are early signs that learning skills from subject matter experts in the workforce is catching on. Purdue Global is launching new academic programs to give their students (who are traditionally career changers in the 25-35 age range) training they would normally only see from real world work experience.
And funds are responding to what is getting labeled as the “Future of Work” educational trend as well. Heather Hartnett, CEO and General Partner of Human Ventures, recently asked on Twitter “Does the career ladder now look more like a lattice? What if you want to map your skills to an entirely new field and increase your earning potential?“ Funds like Human Ventures who are investing in the new future of work are looking for product solutions that redefine the resume.
So where are the opportunities in this new climate? In summary, here is what I’m thinking:
Companies who lead with alternative higher education solutions for high school graduates that are positioned like vocational schools and get students into jobs
Community Colleges who flip from traditional “common core” education to skilled based learning/ job readiness curriculum with corporate influence
Startups who provide fast tracks to certificates valued by employers
And maybe, just maybe, a full educational journey for students (I think I’m going to label this “full-stack” education), staring at preschool, that teaches students everything they need to know to join one of the worlds largest corporations