Ken Smith writes about what he calls Essential Fluency that I think relates to my reaction to Seth Godin’s call for the end of high school essays. Also related to these topics is another article that was sent via email, the gist of it calling for universities to be replaced by corporate-sponsored trade schools.
I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that education in the United States is a mess. At the root of the problem is a belief that in order for one to obtain a good paying job in the United States one must have a college degree. I think this approach is a contributor to the huge wealth gap in the United States because not everyone has the aptitude, not to mention the financial resources, to get a college degree.
I think part of the answer to the problem is a increased emphasis on experience and skills, which I relate to Ken Smith’s post about fluency, and a decreased empahsis on degrees and certifications. Most corporate funded education looks more like certifications.
Using experience as a scale, you could put people in two categories of jobs: entry level and non-entry level. A person hired in to an entry level position would be expected to have the rudimentary skills (reading, writing, math) but the company hiring them would provide the full suite of training need ot fill the roles of the company. No-entry level would be direct hire in to the roles. In neither of these cases is a college degree needed.