Episode 41: The Evolution of Modern Education Feat. Ed Powers and Christina Inge of Husky Communications
Today's world is ever-evolving, and at a rapid pace. Companies are beginning to finally recognize and value soft skills such as empathy, creativity, collaboration, and communication in their potential employees. These soft skills are becoming just as valuable to an employer as the hard skills and qualifications they typically require.
It's up to schools to understand the shift in educational preferences to ensure their students are prepared for future employment. Most education, which has existed since the industrial revolution, has involved students playing a more passive role during the learning process. As the concept of experiential learning becomes more prevalent in the education system, the benefits become crystal clear.
Filling the Gap
Christina Inge and Ed Powers both recognized the demand for experiential learning and sought to fill the gaps traditional education provided. Ed brought along 25 years of industry experience in corporate communications, while Christina brought 20 years of experience leading digital strategy and managing complex marketing technology projects.
Together, they launched a new program in collaboration with Northeastern University called Husky Communications, whose purpose is to bring the real-world tasks of running a marketing agency into the classroom, so that students are better equipped to take on the jobs of today. Oftentimes, those jobs require that you not only studied the theory, but did the actual work—email drip or video campaigns, managing major brands on social media, and anything else that will give students an exact experience of what it's actually like to run a communications agency.
In addition to those hard skills, there are also the soft skills that were previously mentioned:
How do you build a relationship with an actual client or boss?
How do you gain their confidence?
How do you build schedules?
It's complicated to not only do marketing across a growing number of social medias, but to learn them on the fly. By building a specific program, students can learn through action rather than theory, which also helps fill the employment gap. It's not uncommon to hear that, for example, there might be ten million jobs out there but eight million people who are unemployed and still struggling to find jobs. This is in part due to the broken process in hiring, such as employers overlooking people with a non-traditional background or a mismatch in skills altogether.
Learning in theory is one thing, but being able to use the tools and build the relationships you would normally build in the real world changes the game for everybody. Because employers often don't provide the tools and training necessary to hit the ground running, Husky Communications fills that gap for students to have portfolio pieces and experience with programs like HubSpot or Semrush, eliminating the ramp-up time for people who are already well acquainted with these technologies to get started at a company. If you know HubSpot or other commonly used social media management tools, there are dozens of different career directions you could take. Careers have become flexible and even unpredictable as a result of automation and globalization, to the point that it won't be uncommon for people to have around five careers over the span of their life.
Value through Experience
Marketing that used to work yesterday, does not work today. With the way technology, attention spans, and content consumption is changing, the ability to demonstrate practical applications is more important than ever. Nowadays, students want flexible learning. They don't want to be tied solely to a classroom, so educators have the task of becoming proficient with learning and technologies or risk being left behind, which is where experiential learning comes in. The power of experiential learning is distinct and can be demonstrated in a number of ways.
For example, if you were learning how to ride a bike, you could read about it and watch videos about it, but you won't fully understand it until you hop on a bike and ride one. It's that simple—you have to do it.
One of the things that experiential learning provides that theoretical learning doesn't, is the ability to practice networking and communication. Nothing can replace that experience, and those teachable moments become built into the curriculum. Once students discover methods that work better than others, they condition themselves not to fear mistakes but embrace them instead.
It's not just about knowing how to be a good Java developer, but also having good verbal, technical, and presentation skills. Only real-world experience can display what good communication skills actually look like in addition to knowing how to anticipate people's questions, and objections, then learning how to embrace different perspectives.
Adapting brings Freedom
Often, with experiential learning comes a requirement for continuous learning as well. In the past, people would get an undergraduate degree and feel like they've "arrived," meaning they can enter the profession with confidence and perform their job tasks well. Now, with many of the technology fields, you may need to learn a whole new skill or software in the subsequent years. The temporary nature of work may also cause individuals to acquire skills unique enough to reinvent themselves before a company decides to move in another direction without them.
Continuous learning also opens up the concept of bite-sized learning. Rather than taking on a full program, there is an increase in the demand for education that fills small gaps in what people need to know in order to be successful in their profession, saving them time and money in the process.
In our fast-paced world, we have come to recognize that there's no such thing as a permanent job anymore. If you train people for just one job, you're not really equipping them for the future. Education must evolve in a way that people are being equipped to take control of their own careers.
In a way, you could think of experiential learning as a foundation of liberation.
Learn more about Husky Communications at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/huskycomms/
Connect with Christina Inge: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinainge/
Connect with Ed Powers: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-powers-ed-d-012015a/
__
This episode is brought to you by N2N’s Illuminate App, The iPaaS for Higher Education.
About N2N Services
Founded in 2010, N2N is committed to serving educational institutions and helping them figure out how to serve their students, faculty, and staff using the most innovative technologies and solutions available in the marketplace. Over the last decade, N2N has served over 300 academic institutions and enabled their student success journeys.
N2N Services Inc. is a leader in enterprise application integration and strategic advisory services for higher education, At N2N, we are committed to providing the highest quality solutions and collaboratively building student-centric solutions.
Learn more at https://illuminateapp.com/web/higher-education/
Subscribe and listen to more episodes at IlluminateHigherEducation.com