HIGHER EDUCATION HIKERS : ABSOLESCENCE GLOBAL ESSAY

'' STUDENTS DESERVE better than this. '' You all - just about all of you - are well on your way to obsolescence. In the very near future, nobody is interested in hiring you. Get that straight, as we benchmark US and see whatsup?

Gina Raimondo, who was the secretary of commerce under the Biden administration and the 75th governor of Rhode Island, thinks that the future of higher education should be modular and employers must be active in shaping what gets taught.

' US needs to shift focus from - long and expensive degrees - that risk obsolescence between completion toward short, affordable jon-linked credits that offer on-ramps between education and work.

People should be encouraged to pursue credentials that can stand alone or be stacked over time into degrees, bringing people back to campus over the arc of their lives.

The funding model for higher education must change, too. Public investment should hold schools to measurable labor market results, not just enrollments. Texas offers a working example:

Community colleges that award credentials in high-demand fields receive greater state funding. If we take this approach, we’ll quickly see a survival of the fittest emerge:

Innovative programs that meet labor market needs will be rewarded, while underperformers will shutter.

When it comes to employer-led training. America needs a modern apprenticeship system that allows workers to earn while they learn, which many European countries have embraced.

Workers in fields persistently plagued by talent shortages or undergoing rapid technological change need this.

A manufacturing apprentice, for example, could earn a paycheck operating equipment in a factory while learning blueprint reading from a senior technician and taking classes.

But to make this happen on scale, the private sector must be incentivized to do it. That may mean employer tax credits tied to on-the-job training.

States could pilot tax-code reforms that reward workers retention and entry-level hiring, penalizing layoffs and encourage companies to reinvest in A.I. driven savings into the creation of jobs.

This isn't corporate charity; it's strategic necessity.

Skeptics will argue that we've tried work force reform before and it hasn't worked. That the landscape for work force development is littered with underperforming, small-scale training initiatives. They aren't wrong.

But history shows that real change comes in times of crisis.

This Master Essay continues. The World Students Society thanks Gina Raimondo.