As workforce demands evolve and learner expectations shift, colleges and universities must rethink how they prepare learners for long-term career success. Exploring stronger employer partnerships, flexible learning pathways and career-connected education, in this interview, Sam Dreyfus discusses how higher education can better align learning with workforce needs while creating flexible, lifelong pathways that prepare learners for evolving careers.
The EvoLLLution (Evo): Is the workforce gap we talk about today really a talent shortage, or is it a signal that higher education must fundamentally redesign how it serves modern learners?
Sam Dreyfus (SD): We do not have a shortage of talent, but we do have a shortage of clear and direct pathways into good careers. Employers in healthcare, technology and the skilled trades tell us they’re struggling to fill open positions, but there are millions of adults who are more than capable of thriving in those industries. When both of those things are true at once, the problem can’t be the people or the employers. It’s the design of the systems meant to connect them.
Much of higher education was built around the 18-year-old student who moves onto a campus, studies for four years, then goes out into the world looking for a job. The average learner today looks far different. They’re working, raising kids or changing careers in their 40s. Often, they’re juggling all three. By treating those learners as exceptions rather than the new norm, we are creating a gap between the talent we have and the talent employers need.
Evo: If higher education were designed today around the realities of working adults and lifelong learners, what would look dramatically different?
SD: Higher education has come a long way in adapting to the realities of who today’s learners actually are. We’re seeing more online options and flexible scheduling, along with a broader rethinking of how institutions approach time. But the traditional academic calendar was designed around a different kind of student experience, one centered largely on full-time, residential students. Working adults do not necessarily need summers off. They need year-round scheduling and accelerated formats that help them maintain momentum and graduate as efficiently and affordably as possible.
At the same time, more people are questioning the value of a traditional education. They want a tangible return on investment and skills they can apply directly in the field. That expectation is also changing how institutions think about proof of capability.
Employers want evidence that a graduate can do the work, which is why hands-on labs and externships matter so much. A degree designed for today’s learners should function as a real demonstration of their skills. In essence, a student should walk across the stage at graduation, having already done the job they’re about to be hired for.
Evo: How can institutions move beyond awarding degrees to becoming continuous workforce partners that help learners upskill and reskill throughout their careers?
SD: My grandfather founded our institution in 1966 to prepare workers for the computer industry, which was then brand new. He saw that the careers people need preparation for are always moving. A degree someone earns at 22 is rarely going to be enough to get them through a 40-year career on its own.
That’s why colleges cannot focus only on preparing students for their first job. Our foundational role is to instill the aptitude, mindset and curiosity graduates need to continue developing throughout their careers. Becoming a continuous workforce partner also means making it easier for someone to return for a short-term credential that builds toward a larger career goal without navigating a bureaucratic maze.
AI will make learning more accessible and adaptive, but short-term training is difficult to deliver well. The value institutions provide will be in how we structure the experience, evaluate capability and manage the outcome. That means working directly with employers to ensure training addresses real workforce needs and delivers a measurable return.
Evo: What role should employers play in shaping curricula if institutions want to produce graduates who are ready for tomorrow’s workforce, not yesterday’s jobs?
SD: Employers should be codesigners. Many institutions now have advisory boards featuring business leaders, but those arrangements don’t amount to much when the board meets twice a year for lunch. Instead, employers should directly help define the competencies a program should produce. They should help institutions understand when industry needs are shifting. And they should open their doors through ongoing externships and apprenticeships. When employers invest in curriculum, they find that they stop thinking about the entry-level pipeline as someone else’s problem.
Evo: As AI accelerates the pace of change across industries, how should higher education rethink what it means to prepare learners for long-term career success?
SD: AI is raising the price of entry into the workforce, and education’s job is to lower it. Entry-level roles are shrinking in some fields, and employers increasingly expect new hires to add value on day one. Of course, we’ve actually seen this pattern before. Mechanized agriculture, industrial machinery and computing each eliminated work while creating new opportunities, but those opportunities only flowed toward the people prepared to take advantage of them.
Graduates still need to develop technical expertise in their given fields, but they also need, more than ever, to develop the critical human capabilities machines struggle to replicate. As routine cognitive work gets cheaper, the premium employers place on skills like judgment, communication and ethical reasoning will rise. Underlying all that is general AI literacy, which institutions must treat as a baseline expectation across programs.
Evo: What separates institutions that are successfully closing regional workforce gaps from those that are still operating within traditional higher education models?
SD: The most successful institutions take a close look at their region’s workforce, ask real employers which jobs are going unfilled and which industries are growing, then build programs that directly answer those questions. Speed is essential as well. An institution that can launch or revise a program in months will serve its community far better than one that’s locked into multiyear curriculum cycles.
Ultimately, institutions that are closing workforce gaps measure themselves on whether graduates get hired into the fields they trained for and whether their earnings justify the investment. Families are questioning the value of a degree right now, and the institutions with the most convincing responses are those that can point to a graduate working in the field and earning a family-sustaining wage.