Education Trends 2020: Part 2/4
If you missed the first piece in this series, here it is. The purpose of these pieces is to write out the key trends I see based on my own portfolio in edtech and future of work, and the 50 or so pitches I get each month.
Let’s get back to the key trends.
6. Networks and signaling are a fundamental way that people get jobs which has nothing to do with the quality of their education or skills (merit). Network and signaling are probably 80% responsible for getting your first job, while 20% is merit. Trilogy is probably the best example of using signaling effectively. They built a coding bootcamp and then partnered with universities to offer a credential for completing their bootcamp, causing much more student interest in their program. Marketerhire is a great example of a network expressly created for placing talented marketers in freelance jobs at tech companies. By building the network for the marketer, they supercharge their ability to find new jobs.
7. Currently, colleges bundle network, signal, academics, social development, and job training. I believe these five things will be unbundled and reskinned in many ways. For example, Lambda School emphasizes job training and placement, with everything else — academics, social development, network, and signal — in service of this goal. Likewise, Guild allows employers to pay for employees to attain college degrees. This additional signal on their resumes causes employees to spend much longer with the employer than they would otherwise.
8. Partnerships with universities allow for stackable credentials leading to degrees. People highly value degrees because of the signal. Accreditors are getting much more open to allowing this type of innovation, especially in partnership with accredited colleges. FourthRev does this by marrying industry certifications like AWS training with local universities.
9. Apprenticeships are a very good way to ‘try before you buy’ for employers, but are massively under-utilized by universities and vocational schools. Avoiding the interview until you’ve proven your worth is crucial to non-traditional candidates because interviewers answer two questions — (is this person like me?, is this person smart?) which entry level alternative candidates all fail. In some industries (construction trades), these programs are already accepted by employers. WhiteHat in the UK is by far the most successful here, with significant employer incentives to provide apprenticeships.
10. SMB’s are likely to be the majority of jobs created out of Covid. SMB owners often lack significant skills (marketing, finance, operations). Affordable MBA’s have not been built. These have been kept scarce by the desire for students to gain the signal through an accredited MBA. But SMB is an area where the skills and network are more important than the signal. A huge number of programs are being built in this space, often slicing by geography and type of founder being served including Stoa School, Tope University, MakeLane and altMBA.
If you enjoyed the second piece in the series, here is the third!
