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Seventy-percent of 2009 college graduates did not have a job upon graduation and eighty-percent moved back home with their parents. Many returned with significant student loan debt and limited prospects for repayment. And yet there are currently an estimated 3 million job openings in occupations requiring advanced technical skills. In today's economy, it is becoming increasingly clear that it's that you student but what you student that is the key to employability and earnings potential. From a policy perspective, colleges are rewarded for enrollment numbers and there is increasing attention on graduation rates, yet very little if any attention is paid to student placement and earnings. Considering the massive investment required for higher education, aren't these valuable measures as well? In this session, Michael Bettersworth makes the case why degrees increasingly matter less, competencies are the real currency, and student success is about much more than enrollment numbers or graduation rates. It's also about getting a J.O.B.
Citation preview
Moving Beyond Degrees: Why Competency is
Currency
Michael BettersworthTexas State Technical College
October 5, 2010TCCIL
Source: CollegeGrad.com. College graduates moving back home in larger number. 22 July 2009!
U.S. Credit Card Debt$826.5 billion
U.S. Student Loan Debt$829.785 billion
An estimated “$300 billion in federal student loan debts have been incurred in
the last four years...”
Four times the rate of inflation.Almost twice the rate of
healthcare costs.
On average, tuition tends to increase about 8% per year. An 8% college inflation rate means that the cost of college doubles every nine years. For a baby born today, this means that college costs will be more than three times current rates when the child matriculates in college.
-FinAid
Source: FinAid. Tuition Inflation. Retrieved from: http://www.finaid.org/savings/tuition-inflation.phtml.
“There is a growing sense among the public that higher education might be overpriced and under-
delivering.”
-The Chronicle of Higher Education
Source: Cronin, Joseph & Horton, Howard. Will higher education be the next bubble to burst? The Chronicle of Higher Education. May 22, 2009.
“American workers’ unmet need for further education and training is exacerbating today’s
unemployment problem and portending long-term trouble for workers and businesses -- even after the economy
recovers.”-Business Roundtable
Source: Business Roundtable, New survey reveals obstacles to training and education are threatening U.S. competitiveness and worker prosperity. October 8, 2009
And yet...
The War on Work
The Education Dichotomy
The Higher Ed Imbalance
Defining Student Success
Moving Beyond Degrees
“...the collective effect [...] has been this marginalization of lots and lots of jobs. And I realized [...] to me the most important thing to know and to really come face to face with is the fact that I got it wrong about a lot of things.”
“We have declared War
on Work”
Mike Rowe, Dirty JobsSource: TED Speech, December 2008.
There is much talk of “diversity” in education, but not much accommodation of the kind we have in mind when we speak about the quality of a man, or a woman: the diversity of disposition.!
“We have come to see labor as something we do in exchange for money and not as an expression of our
intrinsic nature. Many a white-collar man works hard but lives in a world of soul-killing abstraction, where what he does, what he feels and who he is have little to
do with one another.”
Source: Dreher, Rod. The soft bigotry of high expectations. The Dallas Morning News. May 29, 2009.
Rod DreherDallas Morning News
Up to 3 million highly-skilled technical positions remain unfilled as of June 2010.
Source: The new competition for america’s jobs. Trends Magazine. June 2010.
This “War on Work” has led to a perceived devaluation of certain career and educational
pursuits.
How did we get here?
The War on Work
The Education Dichotomy
The Higher Ed Imbalance
Defining Student Success
Moving Beyond Degrees
The Class of Work
80%
20%
Blue Collar White Collar
“Mental”
“Manual”
This division has been applied to American
education.
Smith-Hughes Act 1917Education Dissected
AcademicVocationalEducation
Smith-Hughes Act 1917Education Dissected
Academic Vocational
DOL’s New Model
65%
20% 15%
Skilled “Labor”“Professional”Unskilled “Labor”
“Cubicles” “Fries with that?”
“Experts”
“Craftsmen”“Developers”
“Skilled”
“Technicians”
“Engineers”
“Paid” “Hired”
Higher education must serve all of these segments; however, according to the Chronicle of Higher
Education, “colleges are taking on too many roles and doing none of them well.”
- The Chronicle of Higher Education
Source: Hacker, A & Dreifus, C. Are colleges worth the price of admission. The Chronicle of Higher Education. July 11, 2010.
Engineering schools realized this in 2001
Source: About CDIO, http://www.cdio.org/about_cdio/about_1_cdio.html, Retrieved July 7, 2009.
Source: About CDIO, http://www.cdio.org/about_cdio/about_1_cdio.html, Retrieved July 7, 2009.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
People need to know how to think, inquire, analyze, question, challenge, explore, empathize, relate, decide,
innovate, grow...
People also need relevant competencies so they can get a job.
The War on Work
The Education Dichotomy
The Higher Ed Imbalance
Defining Student Success
Moving Beyond Degrees
“Over the next ten years, 26 of the top 30 fastest growing jobs will require some post-secondary education or training...The demand for skilled workers is outpacing supply, resulting in attractive, high-paying jobs going unfilled.”
Emily Stover DeRoccoPresident, The Manufacturing Institute, National Center for the American WorkforceFormer Assistant Secretary of Labor for Education and Training
“Essentially, postsecondary education or training has
become the threshold requirement for access to
middle-class status and earnings in good times and
in bad.”
“It is no longer the preferred pathway to middle-class jobs—it is, increasingly, the
only pathway.”
Therefore, it is reasoned, we must increase college
graduation rates. In Texas we call this, “Closing the Gaps.”
What Gaps Are We Closing?
0
27500
55000
82500
110000
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Texas Public Two-Year Colleges AwardsTexas Public Four-Year Universities Awards
College graduation is increasing in Texas.That’s a good thing.
0
12500
25000
37500
50000
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Texas Technical Public Two Year AwardsTexas Academic Public Two-Year Awards
Technical awards are flat/declining.Academic awards are now the most common.
This is incongruent with job demand.
Does this output match our workforce demand?
Launchpad Fund Job Building FundCareer and TechnicalScholarship Fund
$10,000,000 $10,000,000$5,000,000
Equipment for high-demand technical programs at two-
year colleges.
Support nonprofit programs preparing low-income students
for high-demand occupations.
Scholarships for two-year college students enrolled in programs
for high-demand occupations.
The JET Fund - Fingers Crossed for 2012
"A university degree used to be an entree to a job.”
“Their university degree means they have a good, solid education but not necessarily something that translates easily into a job.”
Ann Buller, PresidentCentennial College
Source: Birchard, K. (2010) Canadian university graduates are going back to the classroom for vocational training. The Chronicle. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/Canadian-University-Graduates/66078/?sid=cc&utm_source=cc&utm_medium=en.
"The colleges have become kind of a finishing school for university graduates.”
Enrollment of "postgraduate students" at Seneca College has increased at a steady rate, making up 15 percent of the full-time student body and 50 percent of the part-time population in 2009.
Rick Miner, President EmeritusSeneca College
Source: Birchard, K. (2010) Canadian university graduates are going back to the classroom for vocational training. The Chronicle. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/Canadian-University-Graduates/66078/?sid=cc&utm_source=cc&utm_medium=en.
Abdullah Muhaseen graduated with bachelor's degrees in both neuroscience and psychology. Then he enrolled in a public college to become a paramedic.
“My first year at Centennial was more difficult intellectually than my four years at the University of Toronto combined.”
“At university you can procrastinate and miss a lot of lectures, whereas at college you have to keep on top of your assignments to be at the top of your game.”
Source: Birchard, K. (2010) Canadian university graduates are going back to the classroom for vocational training. The Chronicle. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/Canadian-University-Graduates/66078/?sid=cc&utm_source=cc&utm_medium=en.
“At one time, paramedics were simply ambulance drivers who took people to the hospital. Today, a paramedic is trained to recognize many things, such as distinguishing between a heart attack and an aneurism, and begin treatment at the scene. You also have to know your pharmacology to recognize what medications your patient is using and what you can administer en route to the hospital.”
Source: Birchard, K. (2010) Canadian university graduates are going back to the classroom for vocational training. The Chronicle. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/Canadian-University-Graduates/66078/?sid=cc&utm_source=cc&utm_medium=en.
“I love my job. No two days are the same, and it fits my lifestyle.”
Abdullah MuhaseenParamedic
Source: Kelley, P., The dreaded “P” word: an examination of productivity in public postsecondary education, July 2009.
Median earnings in Alabama employment market, and certificates/degrees weighted by value to the state and individuals:
Source: Kelley, P., The dreaded “P” word: an examination of productivity in public postsecondary education, July 2009.
Median earnings in Alabama employment market, and certificates/degrees weighted by value to the state and individuals:
Source: Kelley, P., The dreaded “P” word: an examination of productivity in public postsecondary education, July 2009.
Median earnings in Alabama employment market, and certificates/degrees weighted by value to the state and individuals:
Source: Kelley, P., The dreaded “P” word: an examination of productivity in public postsecondary education, July 2009.
Median earnings in Alabama employment market, and certificates/degrees weighted by value to the state and individuals:
It’s not that you study,but what you study.
The War on Work
The Education Dichotomy
The Higher Ed Imbalance
Defining Student Success
Moving Beyond Degrees
Nationwide, 7,000 students drop out of high school every day.
- U.S. House Education & Labor Committee
Source: House Education & Labor Committee (May 12, 2009). “High school dropout crisis threatens U.S. economic growth and competitiveness, witnesses tell house panel”. Press release. Retrieved September 23, 2009.
Source: Bridgeland, Dilulio and Burke Morison, The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts, A report by Civic Enterprises in association with the Peter D. Hart Research Associates, Washington, DC, March 2006.
I dropped out of school because…
I could have graduated.
Source: Bridgeland, Dilulio and Burke Morison, The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts, A report by Civic Enterprises in association with the Peter D. Hart Research Associates, Washington, DC, March 2006.
Source: American College Testing
One in every four students leaves college before completing sophomore year.
Source: American College Testing
Only about 60% of Americans who enter a four-year college graduate
with a degree within six years.
Source: American College Testing
The colleges that most students attend "need to streamline their programs, so they emphasize employability.”
Anthony P. CarnevaleDirector, Georgetown CenterGeorgetown University
“Unless we can align career and technology education with what is needed in the workforce, we will simply not be able to realize the vast potential of the Texas Energy Cluster or other high-growth sectors.”
“…I believe that our education system should make a shift to one that is market-driven and takes into account the skills needed by employers.”
Tom PaukenCommissionerTexas Workforce Commission
Higher Ed Accountability On the Rise
Drivers Responses
Growing Public UnrestIncreased Media
AttentionEmployer ComplaintsStudent Default Rates
Tough Budgets
Closing the GapsGainful EmploymentCompletion AgendaMomentum PointsPerkins Funding
MeasuresPerformance Funding
What we measure counts.
Focal Measurements Fuzzy Measurements
EnrollmentsDemographicsContact Hours
Course CompletionGraduates
Numbers of AwardsAward Levels
National Benchmarks
Placement RateEarnings
Student SatisfactionEmployer Satisfaction
New CompaniesReturn on Investment
Value to TaxpayerEfficiency
Traditional higher education is a linear progression built on courses, semesters, degree plans and graduation.
In order to respond to the nation’s workforce needs, we must do better.
The War on Work
The Education Dichotomy
The Higher Ed Imbalance
Defining Student Success
Moving Beyond Degrees
Start
Enroll in Program
Intro to Auto
Automotive Electrical
Automotive Hydraulics
Intro to Diesel
Diesel Electrical
Diesel Hydraulics
Intro to Industrial Systems
Industrial Electrical
Industrial Hydraulics
Traditional Curriculum Model
Source: Ron Sanders, Texas State Technical Collge
Start
Assessment
Automotive Applications Diesel Applications Industrial Applications HVAC Applications
Path
Technology CoreBasic HydraulicsBasic ElectricalBasic Controls
Mechanical PrinciplesThermodynamic Principles
Basic Computing
Core Curriculum Model
Source: Ron Sanders, Texas State Technical Collge
TSMC
Modularized curriculum with embedded certificates in flexible schedules aligned with employer demand
where student success is defined as job placement, not simply completing a course.
Technical Education is not aboutkeeping students in seats.
It’s is about getting themout the door and on their feet.
An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher.
The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy.
Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.
John W. GardnerPresident, Carnegie Corporation
Source: Gardner, J. "Excellence: Can We Be Equal and Excellent Too?", p. 86 (1961)
The Next Phase:
Skills Validation
(stay tuned)
The War on Work
The Education Dichotomy
The Higher Ed Imbalance
Defining Student Success
Moving Beyond Degrees
William Butler Yeats
“Education is not filling a pail, but the lighting
of a fire.”
Something that is true about fire...
it always searches for more fuel.
Let’s go make torches!
Moving Beyond Degrees: Why Competency is
Currency
Michael BettersworthTexas State Technical College
October 5, 2010TCCIL
