Dive Brief:
- The 2015 survey from the World Innovation Summit of Education found just 39% of global education leaders believe their institutions adequately address the skills gap, and in the U.S., where more educators think so, few employers agree.
- Gabriel Sanchez Zinny writes for the Huffington Post that the skills gap was the focus of this year's summit, where education leaders discussed ways of incorporating professional training programs into traditional degrees.
- Speakers highlighted corporate partnerships that fund such job training programs, emphasizing universities are not the only organizations responsible for readying a nation's workforce.
Dive Insight:
With the rising cost of higher education in the US and the increasing average debt load of recent graduates, prospective students and policymakers are becoming more adamant about higher education's role in preparing students for careers. Students want to be able to use their degrees to get a job that allows them to pay off their school loans.
Many schools, even while maintaining a strong liberal arts foundation, are exploring ways of incorporating workplace skills into their curricula. That includes negotiating internships on behalf of students and partnering with local employers to better tailor courses to meet the needs of job creators.