As COVID-19 has been a wakeup call for institutions to prepare for natural disasters, itâs critical to rethink education and workforce training that will allow people to continue working and…
Analyst
Developing Skills That Lead to Jobs: Designing the New Normal with a Four-Point Plan
Holly Zanville | Strategy Director, Lumina Foundation & Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Public Policy, George Washington University David LeaserLetâs play a game of Jeopardy. The category is Learn-and-Work Ecosystem for $200. The answer: pandemic, future of work, and recession. The winning question: What is the perfect storm of…
Lumina Foundation recently awarded a grant to Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW) to partner with AAR, an independent provider of aviation services to commercial and government customers worldwide, to…
Credentialing in the COVID-19 Landscape
Sean Gallagher | Executive Director of the Center for the Future of Higher Education and Talent Strategy, Northeastern University Holly ZanvilleWith the revamp in higher education in response to the pandemic, this could very well be the moment credential innovation was waiting for. Now is the time to use credentials…
Thereâs a growing interest in embedding industry-recognized certifications into college and university degree programs. Workcred is working on a Lumina-supported project with the goal of improving studentsâ transition from college…
COVID-19: An Unexpected and Unusual Driver to Online Education
Dodzi Amemado | Senior Analyst for the Scientific Research and Experimental Development, Canada Revenue AgencyBased on statistics offered by UNESCO, 1.7 billion students and learners around the world are unable to attend school or university as of March 23rd, 2020. This number accounts for…
The United States has a strong need for the skilled technical workforce (STW), a workforce that comprises workers in occupations that require significant science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) expertise…
From Flyover Country to Talent Central: How Indiana is Leading the Pack Linking the Learn-And-Work Ecosystem
Ken Sauer | Senior Associate Commissioner and Chief Academic Officer, Indiana Commission of Higher Education Leighton Johnson, Jeff GrannOnce labeled as flyover country, South Bend, IN, is having quite the renaissance. The city and surrounding communities forming the South Bend-Elkhart Region were recently designated as a 21st Century…
If you are an instructor and you are faced with moving your course online due to COVID-19, you are not alone. Given the rapid shift we are experiencing, many may…
An Updated Map to Help Us Navigate the Learn-And-Work Highway
Holly Zanville | Strategy Director, Lumina Foundation & Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Public Policy, George Washington UniversityThe learn-and-work marketplace is growing more complex and chaotic. If it were a highway, weâd describe it like this: there is a lot of traffic, innovation cars are moving at…
It is no secret that the workplace is changing. The shelf life of new technical skills is estimated to be three years (Auger, 2019), with core digital skills changing even…
Our Shared Responsibility in Expanding Competency-Based Programming
Kelle Parsons | Senior Researcher, American Institutes for Research Jessica MasonCompetency-based education (CBE) programming is becoming increasingly necessary in higher education. But creating and expanding CBE programs can be challenging, with barriers that go beyond the administrative level. Institutions are…
The existing literature showcases a vast amount of research on quality in online learning. Studies abound, diving deep into specific elements of design and delivery and their impact on various…
Robots Are Coming, But Hybrid Skills Will Keep Humans in Control
Rob Kadel | Senior Research Fellow, Strada Education NetworkThere was a mock commercial on Saturday Night Live a few years ago, featuring actor Sam Waterston selling insurance in case of robot attacks. âRobots are everywhere,â he warned, âand…
Professional skills are becoming outdated faster than ever before and traditional education canât keep up. So, what role must colleges and universities play in helping individuals keep up with the…
Mature Workers in a Global Economy: The Importance of Community Colleges
Phyllis Cummins | Senior Research Scholar in the Scripps Gerontology, Miami UniversityAdults ages 40 and above represent over half of the labor force in the U.S. and that proportion is projected to remain constant through 2028. At the same time, the…
Latinos make up an ever-growing share of the U.S. populationâand the workforce. As we look to a future in which jobs will require higher levels of skills and postsecondary learning,…
Competency-Based Education: A Model For Keeping Up in Canada
Jackie Pichette | Director of Policy, Research & Partnerships, Higher Education Quality Council of OntarioMost students enrolled in Canadian colleges and universities today should expect to return to school down the roadâprobably several times, hopefully for shorter, more flexible and affordable programs. Thatâs because,…
By 2025, 60% of funding for public colleges and universities in Ontario will be based on performance. Like the United States, Ontarioâs postsecondary funding was historically based on enrollment, but…
The âIâ vs. “Weâ Balance: Highlighting Your Collaborative Prowess When Interviewing
Jen Meyers Pickard | Executive Search Consultant in the Education Practice, WittKiefferCollaboration. Collaborate. Collaborative. Collaboratively. Whether used as a noun, verb, adjective or adverb, the masterful use of collaboration as a leadership tool is undoubtedly at the top of every search…
There are two intriguing flight paths Iâve been watchingâboth stemming from grants Lumina Foundation awarded to edX, the nonprofit online education platform founded by Harvard and MIT: Build 30 competency-based,…
The Third Wave: Overcoming Elitist College Rankings
Paul Glastris | Editor in Chief, Washington MonthlyThe American higher education system was designed around creating economic mobility and access for individuals of limited means, underpinned by the notion that the more educated a society was, the…
Colleges and universities today operate in a complex, ever-changing environment, and chief among those changes is the role, place and behavior of learners. Todayâs student doesnât fit a homogenous moldâthey…
Education Consumers Are Speaking; Policymakers, Educators, Employers Must Listen
Carol D'Amico | Executive Vice President, Strada Education NetworkTo understand how American consumers value anythingâfrom the gadgets they purchase to their Uber rides or restaurant experiencesâwe simply ask them. So why not ask the consumers of education how…
Artificial Intelligence (AI)âin one context or anotherâseems to be in everyoneâs thoughts and on everyoneâs lips. To some, AIâs a threat to their jobs and way of life. To others,…
Stop Thinking of College as âAn Investmentâ
Ross O'hara | Behavioral Researcher, Persistence PlusThe language we use to describe the world shapes our very understanding of it. As detailed by Dr. Lera Boroditsky at UC San Diego, the affordances or limitations of our…
Colleges and universities both play an essential role in their communities. They provide access to critical programming that help individuals reach their personal goals, whatever they may be. Higher education…
Inside the Big Confusing Credentialing Tent: A New Mission to Understand Non-Degree Credentials
Holly Zanville | Strategy Director, Lumina Foundation & Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Public Policy, George Washington University Frank Swanzy Essien Jr.The number of credentials used to document education and training has grownâbut so has the confusion about what they mean. Researchers use terms such as non-degree credentials, alternative credentials and…
Disruption has been a pervasive theme in higher education in the last decade. First came the expansion of for-profit institutions, bringing rapid growth and an influx of new providers to…
Underfunded Independence: How State Aid Programs Are Failing Americaâs Largest Student Population
Sarah Pingel | Senior Policy Analyst, Education Commmission of the StatesAs the price of postsecondary education continues to rise, institutional, state and federal policy leaders are searching for solutions to ensure people can access the education they need to be…