Commonly heard in K-12 and collegiate classrooms across the nation is the age-old question, “When will I ever use this?” Students often struggle to connect the dots between traditional classroom…
Government
Iowa’s Community College Education and Employment Outcomes Research: Calculating Impact
Paula Nissen | Workforce Preparation and Education Consultant in the Community College and Workforce Preparation Division, Iowa Department of EducationIowa’s Community College Program Outcomes is an organization that studies employment outcomes gained through community college training for both credit and non-credit programming. The Iowa Department of Education’s Community College…
Postsecondary institutions are an integral part of regional development ecosystems for their local communities. But the link between high schools, postsecondary institutions and local employers isn’t always as strong as…
Forming an Alliance to Shrink the Talent Gap
Roger Curtis | Director, Michigan Department of Talent and Economic DevelopmentThe talent gap is the top threat to Michigan’s sustained economic prosperity. We want our employers to be creating more and better jobs so our children can stay here in…
The higher education system is notoriously slow to change, but widespread concerns about the value of a postsecondary education combined with high demands for specific skills from employers have pushed…
Domestic Institutions Remain Top Priority as Northeastern Enters Ontario Market
Reza Moridi | Minister for Training, Colleges and Universities, Province of OntarioNortheastern University recently announced its plan to launch its first international branch campus next year in Toronto, the first non-Canadian university to offer degree programs in Ontario without a local…
Never has access to higher education been more important than it is today. Employers continue to create new opportunities, but these opportunities require a postsecondary credential, and the workforce just…
Focus on Scalable Support Critical for the Success of the Oregon Promise
Ben Cannon | Executive Director, Oregon Higher Education Coordinating CommissionOregon recently joined Tennessee in creating a tuition-free pathway to two-year college for recent high school and GED graduates. The Oregon Promise is expected to drive access for underserved populations…
The corporate education space is immensely promising for colleges and universities, but succeeding in this market requires institutions to take a slightly different approach to programming than they normally do.…
Shared Services: Bringing Efficiency from NASA to Higher Education
Kenneth Newton | Director of Service Delivery in the Shared Services Center, NASAScience, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education is critical to the success of NASA’s strategic plan, as well as President Obama’s STEM policy. As the NASA strategic plan outlines, “To…
This is the conclusion of The EvoLLLution’s two-part Q&A with Keith Sessions, executive director of the Articulation and General Studies Committee (AGSC) and Statewide Transfer and Articulation Reporting System (STARS)…
Shooting for the STARS: How Budget Cuts are Impacting Alabama’s Adult Students (Part 1)
Keith Sessions | Executive Director, Alabama Statewide Transfer and Articulation Reporting SystemThe following Q&A is with Keith Sessions, executive director of the Articulation and General Studies Committee (AGSC) and Statewide Transfer and Articulation Reporting System (STARS) in Alabama. The state recently…
The following interview is with Gavin Newsom, lieutenant governor for the state of California. Newsom recently shared his perspective on the role of higher education institutions in the workforce. In…
Exploring the $10,000 BA: Does Low Cost Preclude Quality?
Thomas Lindsay | Director of the Center for Higher Education, Texas Public Policy FoundationWe have reached a point in this country where the issue of the affordability of college now transcends the usual gulf between Democrats and Republicans, the liberals and conservatives. Across…
For so many people who have some college credits but are no longer enrolled, the desire to walk across the stage to a degree is strong, but the prospect of…
Three Strategies to Better Serve Adult Women in Higher Education
Mary Ann Holladay | Director, Utah Women and Education InitiativeI have been thinking about what kinds of support mechanisms every institution should put into place to encourage more adult women to complete college, and I came to identify three…
There has been an increasing interest in postsecondary education by adult student populations over the past few years, spurred by the weak national economy and recognition of the need for…
Low-Cost Degrees Bringing About A New Dawn for Higher Education
Thomas Lindsay | Director of the Center for Higher Education, Texas Public Policy FoundationThe following interview is with Tom Lindsay, director of the Center for Higher Education at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Lindsay has spoken and written at length about the impact…
The following interview is with Becky Gilpatrick, director of student aid services at the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority. The state of Kentucky recently launched the Go Higher Grant, aimed…
Improving Education Quality in the Era of Outcomes-Based Funding
Thomas Lindsay | Director of the Center for Higher Education, Texas Public Policy FoundationIn what appears to be the next wave, 16 states have adopted, or are moving toward adopting, “outcomes-based funding,” through which a portion of state appropriations to public colleges and…
The following interview is with Thomas Lukaszuk, deputy premier of Alberta and provincial minister of advanced education and enterprise. Lukaszuk recently shared some really interesting thoughts on the role higher…
The Basic Skills Crisis: A Barrier to Answering the President’s Postsecondary Call to Action
Rachel Unruh | Associate Director, National Skills CoalitionFour years ago, in his first address to Congress, President Obama challenged every American to obtain at least one year of training past high school, “be it at a community…
I live in Utah, a state that is beautiful and attracts people to live and work here because it is relatively clean, safe and offers an abundance of career and…
A Federal Perspective on Expanding LiLAs
Erik Paulsen | Congressman for Minnesota’s Third District, United States House of RepresentativesThe following interview is with Congressman Erik Paulsen, Representative for Minnesota’s third district. In 2011, Congressman Paulsen was part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who reintroduced the Lifelong Learning…
The following interview is with Eleni Papadakis, the executive director of the Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board of Washington State. Washington recently passed legislation that creates a clear definition…
Creating Financial Support Structures for Veteran Students
Steve Lease | Director of Workforce Training, Arkansas Association of Two-Year CollegesThe following interview is with Steve Lease, the Director of Workforce Training at the Arkansas Association of Two Year Colleges. The AATYC is currently responsible for a large number of…
Local and state governments foster and strengthen relationships between corporations and institutions of higher education via workforce development funds in order to maintain and enhance their economies and the lives…
Better Teaching Better Learning
David Tidman | Transforming Learning Manager (New Technologies), Barnsley MBCOften when we are looking to teach or introduce new ideas and concepts to learners in the past we have often followed this approach; Step 1: What does the learner…
The biggest workplace hurdle to identifying and assessing development and training needs is lack of a “learning culture.” Organizational culture is defined as the values, assumptions, beliefs, behaviors, and norms…