Ideas for a Conscious Society
I'd love to hear your ideas and opinions; please drop them in the comments section or build your own platform!
POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION
Here's a fact - people entering the workforce today are less likely to hold one job their whole lives than any generation previous. Not only will tomorow's employees cycle through multiple jobs; those jobs will straddle completely different employment sectors. Core competencies today need to be more nuanced to stand out among tough competition but equally broad enough to be applicable to various fields. The only way to build that kind of organic flexibility is for the workforce to have more direct ownership of its own labour. The employers of tomorrow will be more like teachers than CEOs, motivating success rather than simply paying for it.
While the importance of education will only increase, it will no longer be enough for students to learn one or even two trades in post-secondary institutions, a process that with the traditional model would see them amass debts that would burden them for years. Workers need to be able to adjust rapidly to changing work conditions and opportunities, rebranding their skills and themselves multiple times over their careers.
That level of flexibility can only be built around a core of confident self-worth and an intuitive, communicable understanding of one's values.
Post secondary education needs to go beyond today's specialized information dump model and nurture sales skills, critical thinking, resiliency and above all, critical communication skills.
The nature of certification needs to change, too. While job postings might refer to "education or equivalent experience" there's no question that education trumps. Employers rightly feel more comfortable knowing that a potential employee's skills have been certified by a reliable body.
Having said that, the Internet has changed the way information is distributed and absorbed. Varied life and work experiences provide valuable skills by osmosis. There are likely thousands of self-taught individuals who, with a bit of direction and some additional learning, could be adding greater value to our economy in high-need fields.
The hurdle they face is that we tie certification for specialization to specific curriculum. Even the Second Career program, while a great concept, occasionally puts people in the position of having to replicate the wheel in order to get their papers. Degrees in a given field obtained from different institutions will result in slightly differing skill sets, but all degree holders will equally be considered professionals.
We need to uncouple certification from traditional education and make it easier for people to get recognition for the skills they have amassed and creating more opportunities for them to get work in their trades of choice.
Where's the best place to enact these changes and provide these opportunities? Online. We're already offering public services online. The US has a Road Map to create an entire digital government. Innovative post-secondary institutions are embracing both the possibility of online content and the opportunity to crowdsource ideas and engage students where they are - on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.
Government must lead the way and empower greater online training and data exchange - an important step in transition positioning Ontario for success in the knowledge economy.
BEST PRACTICES:
- Laurentian University is truly embracing the potential of online student and stakeholder engagement.
I'd love to hear your ideas and opinions; please drop them in the comments section or build your own platform!
POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION
Here's a fact - people entering the workforce today are less likely to hold one job their whole lives than any generation previous. Not only will tomorow's employees cycle through multiple jobs; those jobs will straddle completely different employment sectors. Core competencies today need to be more nuanced to stand out among tough competition but equally broad enough to be applicable to various fields. The only way to build that kind of organic flexibility is for the workforce to have more direct ownership of its own labour. The employers of tomorrow will be more like teachers than CEOs, motivating success rather than simply paying for it.
While the importance of education will only increase, it will no longer be enough for students to learn one or even two trades in post-secondary institutions, a process that with the traditional model would see them amass debts that would burden them for years. Workers need to be able to adjust rapidly to changing work conditions and opportunities, rebranding their skills and themselves multiple times over their careers.
That level of flexibility can only be built around a core of confident self-worth and an intuitive, communicable understanding of one's values.
Post secondary education needs to go beyond today's specialized information dump model and nurture sales skills, critical thinking, resiliency and above all, critical communication skills.
The nature of certification needs to change, too. While job postings might refer to "education or equivalent experience" there's no question that education trumps. Employers rightly feel more comfortable knowing that a potential employee's skills have been certified by a reliable body.
Having said that, the Internet has changed the way information is distributed and absorbed. Varied life and work experiences provide valuable skills by osmosis. There are likely thousands of self-taught individuals who, with a bit of direction and some additional learning, could be adding greater value to our economy in high-need fields.
The hurdle they face is that we tie certification for specialization to specific curriculum. Even the Second Career program, while a great concept, occasionally puts people in the position of having to replicate the wheel in order to get their papers. Degrees in a given field obtained from different institutions will result in slightly differing skill sets, but all degree holders will equally be considered professionals.
We need to uncouple certification from traditional education and make it easier for people to get recognition for the skills they have amassed and creating more opportunities for them to get work in their trades of choice.
Where's the best place to enact these changes and provide these opportunities? Online. We're already offering public services online. The US has a Road Map to create an entire digital government. Innovative post-secondary institutions are embracing both the possibility of online content and the opportunity to crowdsource ideas and engage students where they are - on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.
Government must lead the way and empower greater online training and data exchange - an important step in transition positioning Ontario for success in the knowledge economy.
BEST PRACTICES:
- Laurentian University is truly embracing the potential of online student and stakeholder engagement.
What about the UK's long running Open University practice, or the campuses in Second Life from Harvard and Yale, or the massive online free courses from a number of ivy league schools?
ReplyDeleteI was focusing on Ontario-based examples, but absolutely!
ReplyDeleteThere's lots of global best practices that a broad-minded Ontario Liberal Leader/Ontario Government could learn from. Feel free to post some case studies and links here!