There’s a few take aways from this article. The first, that yes, manufacturing, whether it’s creating a new physical product, or a virtual product as in an application, is important to the growth of our economy. Second, learning by doing is always more of an effective learning tool than standard lecture-based education. That is why vocational education has to be promoted stronger in the lower age groups, starting in 6th grade, and transitioning to life long skills at the high school level, that at a minimum, would allow all students to participate in skill-based employment.

On the negative side, this is another example of profiteering via education to convince people they can get rich quick by investing a lot of money ($6000!?) for a limited education. Expand that to the equivalent knowledge, training, and practice that you would need for real world employment, and you are still talking $36,000 a year in education costs. Hardly saving any money over traditional education venues, with the added question of non-proven results.

These Make Camps are great opportunities for youth to get involved in technology and to encourage entrepreneurship. But this is stuff that other countries do as part of their elementary school education. The US needs to get in gear and reform education so that it is competitive with other countries and provide a better bang for the buck than what is currently being spent on it. We spend billions of dollars a year on education with poor results and no accountability on those who govern and work in the system.