MIT researchers provide an eye-popping visual representation of the economic power of higher education, especially over the past twenty years.
via The Politics of Going to College – NYTimes.com.
HSD-high school dropout; HSG-high school grad; SMC-some college; CLG-college grad;
GTC-Greater than college
Cloud Will Generate 14 Million Jobs By 2015: Thats A Good Start – Forbes.
One thing we know about the current environment is that today’s trending high value jobs often didn’t even exist just 3-4 short years ago. That’s a challenge for all of us, especially those working outside the leading tech hubs or coming out of college where curriculum often severely lag new market trends and practice. Over the next three years, Cloud with create over $1 trillion in revenue and 14 million jobs, many in tech but in all areas of enterprise as well. The tech world that drives high value jobs in all fields shifts so rapidly that we need an intelligence and preparation unit to keep ourselves ready for the next high value opportunities. How do we predict and prepare for new opportunities, especially if we’re not in one of the companies on bleeding edge of technology? Three steps will move you forward:
Spending just an hour or two a week can make a huge difference in keeping current on new business methods or technologies. Today we have to be able to ride the tech wave to ensure professional success.
Brilliant discussion, and a quick read, on the massive changes happening now in higher education.
The world’s master thinkers in every field are now widely available to everyone with a computer and many are teaching in MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) to 100’s of thousands of students. Do we need thousands of mediocre courses/lectures on the same topic around the US or is there a new model for receiving knowledge by the best digitally, and applying it in smaller settings with key teacher/facilitators? Done right, it will give students a superior learning experience.
Soon we’ll select from the best of many institutions and ‘masters’ putting together our own highly personalized educational curriculum, which will then be certified for quality based on the rigor of that learning experience. This is a good thing. The current accreditation system is meaningless in regard to quality and ridiculously expensive. With this, I believe we’ll see a superior learning experience, delivered in a more efficient and effective way.
Change has come slowly to higher ed–it’s the nature of huge governmental and non-profit entities. Your memory of college 25 years ago would be similar to today’s reality–except the cost is approximately 20X what you paid and nothing else in our world is similar, including the demands and career sophistication awaiting the new college grad. Welcome disruption! Our students and economy deserve it.
Giving Women the Access Code – NYTimes.com.
“As recently as 1985, 37 percent of graduates in the field were women; by 2005 it was down to 22 percent, and sinking.”
Many of the fastest growing tech companies today are targeted to an overwhelming female market–think Pinterest, Groupon, Zygna. The truth is that to have a vibrant economy and long term tech innovation, women’s talents have to be utilized in software development and product creation. Yet there are few women making a career in software development– the great economic ‘muscle’ in the high value work world today and as far out in the future as we can see. Women are killing it in other areas–making massive strides in all other fields and professions, as their numbers dwindle in the computer sciences according to a recent article in the NYTimes.
In Giving Women the Access Code, Harvey Mudd President, Maria Klawe, and others, are working to change this by creating computer sciences programs that appeal to women. College is the time to both understand the breath of what one is able to learn and do, but also understand the external value proposition of their work. The same transformation needs to happen in the field. I know many women who have excelled in engineering or computer science education programs, but left these fields after a few years due to dysfunctional environments that had nothing to do with the actual work responsibilities.
We need to do three things:
1) Revolutionize the teaching of computer sciences and software development, especially with the newer platforms available, to draw in women of all ages, both through university settings such as Harvey Mudd and the other great CS schools and the growing non-university education platforms, such as Codecademy and Udemy.
2) Recreate software/product development environments, from man caves with man rules to women inclusive environments. I know many amazingly bright women engineers/CS who have left the field, as ‘life is too short to live this way.’ Its not that hard to do–just takes some insight, open-mindedness and a willingness to make changes.
3) Investors should insist on women on the team, when entrepreneurs pitch a company with even a 50% women’s market. Many of today’s companies have predominant women’s markets, yet no women on the team?! Come on! This is not rocket science! Over the last few years I’ve heard dozens of pitches from young tech guys developing products for women-predominant markets that haven’t a clue about the market they’re looking to serve. This often doesn’t preclude them for blowing through money–lots of money. They have unlimited research but still don’t ‘get’ it. Women around the table, women in the scrum meetings makes you stronger and ‘derisks’ your ventures.
Good for Maria Klawe and others like her–it’s just the beginning of what’s to be done….
Trish Costello 