Pedro Moore's List: Education

• While high school and college degrees have become the minimum prerequisite for most jobs, employers now demand more specialized knowledge and a higher degree of advanced thinking and problem-solving skills
• . In addition, many young people are caught in the trap of being unable to find a job without experience, and being unable to get that experience without a job.
• Too many American students leave school—with and without diplomas—unprepared to enter the workforce.
• While some youth are being pushed out as they struggle to keep up with coursework that’s not engaging or to handle personal and family needs, millions more leave school with hollow diplomas and degrees, inadequately prepared to meet the needs of today’s workforce.

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• a firm investing in education start-ups that counts Pearson among its partners.
• Learn Capital

• Outside of traditional professions, however, these days you simply don’t need a stodgy old professor or some crapulent college dean in a ridiculous faux-medieval gown to tell you–and the world–that you’re credible in your field of study.
• “But employers demand formal credibility,” I can hear skeptics saying. True, and they also used to demand white skin, and male private parts. It’s all changing. In addition to the valiant efforts of civil rights and women’s movement pioneers of the past, at a certain point, simple business logic also began (and continues) to prevail: Any firm that continues to insist on hiring only white males is missing out on oodles of non-white and female talent, and thus, is putting itself at a distinct disadvantage against its more open competitors.
• In the midst of a massive jobs crisis, I can only view this as a good thing. America needs jobs, which means America needs to groom the next generation of job creators. One way we adults (including educators, parents, business leaders, and politicians) could aid in that process is by promoting the idea that creating a business is a worthy sphere of learning–as worthy as a classroom or a college curriculum.
• Let’s cut the BS about needing to learn everything important you’re ever going to learn in life between the ages of 18 and 22 while enrolled in college. And while we’re at it, let’s cut the BS about how a BA certifying these four years is the only form of credibility.
• I actually agree that a liberal arts degree is more valuable than other degrees (unless it is medicine - the author is correct).  Business, Engineering, etc are "vocational" degrees.  And those vocational skills in demand are ever changing. Employers want people who can think and solve problems.  You can teach most anyone the vocational part of a job, but teaching them to think is much, much harder and something employers will not invest time in.  Look at the degrees from the CEO's from the top 500 companies - most are liberal arts degrees and there is a reason.

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