Episode 07: “Jailbreaking Degrees” to transform education
Just recently, Elon Musk made headlines for donating $5 million through to Khan Academy, a non-profit institution in the USA which provides access to free resources like practice exercises, instructional videos, and personalized learning dashboards for self-guided learning. As a self-professed lifelong learner, this is exciting news to me!
The availability of free online learning continues to grow exponentially and will continue to do so as the market for traditional college degrees fluctuates. While this presents immeasurable opportunities for individuals to chart their own learning journeys, it also presents a significant challenge--how can employers verify and evaluate skills learned? There are no standards across educational platforms and no shared understanding of what it means to complete a certain course or attain a certification.
In short, how do we get credit for all of this learning?
To find answers to this question, I invited David Blake, Founder of Degreed, to join me on an episode of my Illuminate Higher Education podcast. Degreed’s mission is to “Jailbreak the Degree.” According to the company’s manifesto, “There is no single path to expertise… Everyone deserves recognition for their expertise, no matter how they got there.”
In the podcast, David explains that the problem with a college degree being the default standard for evaluating job candidates is it’s not necessarily reflective of an individual’s skill set, not to mention the financial and other challenges associated with getting a degree in the United States today. Degree requirements can filter out qualified candidates who have amassed years of on-the-job experience or those who have obtained alternative certifications. So long as employers insist on using college degree requirements to evaluate candidates, they are leaving behind huge pools of qualified talent from the very beginning.
In my recent podcast episodes, we’ve explored the idea of trying to measure the ROI of higher education. We’ve explored a number of different perspectives, and the question is equally applicable here. How do we measure the ROI of building your own “degree” through mixing and matching resources available online?
Degreed works to solve that problem by partnering directly with employers. They work together to build workforce development programs that allow individuals to prioritize their interests while aligning learning endeavors with business goals. Finally, we can earn that “credit” by demonstrating mastery of skills learned according to our company’s goals.
David’s perspective on higher education aligns closely with mine--it is critical to increasing availability and accessibility of educational opportunities across the board. Listen to the full podcast episode to hear David’s story of being an education reformer by choice and entrepreneur by necessity, how Degreed came to be, and why it’s critical for employers to be more open-minded in hiring practices.
Listen to Episode 007 of Illuminate Higher Education below or on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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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/.
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