If knowledge is Boundless, why isn’t Education?
Everyone loves the idea of lifelong learning. And yet we haven’t gone much far beyond narrowly defined one- to four-year programs, mostly pursued at the beginning of one’s career.
The classroom is completely filled up with first year students. They are eager to listen to a panel of alumni who will share what happened to them after finishing their top MBA program and the tips and advice they wish they had been given.
The audience listens captivated. We’ve heard of the stellar rise from intern to partner at a top consulting firm; we’ve learned about the winding road of spectacular investments from a guy in Venture Capital, and even about the Investment Banker who recruited for Lehman Brothers when he graduated in 2007.
Now questions open up to the public. “What would you recommend to someone without a quantitative background trying to make it into Investment Banking?” asks someone. “I’m interested in hearing more about how you overcame the challenge of finishing your MBA right during the financial crisis”; another one. The questions roll through the room. The silences between them become shorter and shorter as people feel less tense about asking. And then, finally, someone asks the question
“Do you have any electives you would recommend?”
On the surface of it a simple question. Some people even smile, almost giggle at it. The first answer is clearly canned at standardized -
“It depends a lot on what you want to do”
But now another student presses -
“In retrospect though, are there any electives you wish you had taken while you were here?”
And now the answer gets more interesting -
“Well, when I did the MBA there weren’t any classes on AI and today that’s one of the main things I deal with, I wish it would’ve been offered already then!”
And now another panelist jumps in –
“Pricing just sounded boring to me and in my last venture that was the main issue we struggled with”
And even a third one now wants to give her perspective –
“I wish I had taken a class from the law school, would’ve saved me a ton of money and a few major headaches. I don’t need to be a lawyer but I would’ve benefited a lot two years ago from knowing some basics around term sheets”
Whatever their jobs, consultants, investment bankers, corporate managers or entrepreneurs, they all have one thing in common: they need to keep learning. In other words, their MBA didn’t teach them everything they needed — or it did but they forgot it before it was applicable to their career.
The fact is exacerbated by the fact that people are changing jobs more often than ever before; some statistics say that on average as much as 12 times throughout a career or 4 times by the time you’re 32. This may accelerate even more, as there is data suggesting that in the next 10 years approximately 375M workers are expected to have to switch jobs given technological disruption and other factors.
And so, they resort to a wide range of solutions: online courses, micro-learning, conferences with consultants who pay to speak (I know…), Advanced Management Programs and other Executive Education courses (paying up to $72K for 7 weeks on campus and 8 weeks of distance learning). Their co-workers — many of whom couldn’t afford an MBA in the first place — resort to the above as well as Executive and Online MBAs, some of which are administered over the phone and have nothing more than a few executives sharing their stories and insights. Clearly the higher education industry is having a ball.
Executive Education is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.8% in the UK between 2018 and 2023.
Employers spent $71B on training in 2016.
Online higher education made $17B in 2017.
Simply put, knowledge is boundless. There is always something more to learn. And an immense amount of people recognise this and are eager to spend money on learning. Clearly, you can’t fit all the necessary knowledge for a successful career and a curious mind in a 1- or 2-year Master’s Degree. Not only can you not fit it in, but probably one year after graduation countless new theories and ideas will emerge, a new disruptive technology that will impact almost every industry will pick-up and a consumer trend that only a few can make sense of will spring out.
But if knowledge is boundless why is learning limited to “Titles”, “Certificates” and “Diplomas”?
But if knowledge is boundless why is learning limited to “Titles”, “Certificates” and “Diplomas”?
In a context defined by change and innovation, what professionals need is for their education and training to be like knowledge: boundless.
Put romantically, professionals today are almost forced to follow the Renaissance ideal of the Polymath.
Put romantically, professionals today are almost forced to follow the Renaissance ideal of the Polymath.
But is there any educational model that truly allows them to do that (without making them bankrupt (again))? In fact, how do we do this? How do we create a higher educational system that truly allows for boundless life-long learning? How can we offer professionals the opportunity to learn anything they want at any time they want it? How do we make sure we preserve the community that top programs offer and that is key to learning? Can we leverage immersive technological experiences to create something better than a series of videos and quizzes? Perhaps we can leverage collective knowledge? Perhaps we leverage the ability to create an almost infinitude of bite-sized programs catering to the range of needs?
Certainly, there’s a lot we can leverage from our current educational offerings, but probably the most revolutionary ideas will come from looking at other successful educational systems in world history, such as the Japanese Dojo or the Renaissance and Enlightenment’s uniquely humanist approach.
I would love hear your insights, ideas and references of people or companies addressing this issue.
Sources:
“Education Futures” by Carrington Crisp [http://www.carringtoncrisp.com/images/PDFs/Executive_Education_Futures_18.pdf] Retrieved October 6th 2019
