INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Ryan Craig
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Ryan Craig is managing director of University Ventures.
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Broadening education investments to full-stack solutions
College for the 21st century
Kids these days take a
greater interest in practical things than we give them credit for
For example, this summer my 12-year-old son Leo was at sleepaway camp in Canada
When we received his first letter home, among camp platitudes, the two notable items reported were that one of his counselors was discharged
from the Israeli Army a week before camp, while another was recently &mugged by three guys (one had a gun!) and got stabbed in the arm.& Leo
reported the cabin was mesmerized when, as a reward, the counselor showed campers his sweater with a knife hole in it.
America colleges and
universities could learn a thing or two from Leo, because they continue to resist teaching students the practical things they&ll need to
know as soon as they graduate; for instance, to get jobs that will allow them to make student loan payments
Digital skills head this list, specifically experience with the high-powered software they&ll be required to use every day in entry-level
positions.
But talk to a college president or provost about the importance of Marketo, HubSpot, Pardot,Tableau, Adobe and Autodeskfor their
graduates, and they&re at a loss for how to integratelast-mile traininginto their degree programs in order prepare students to work on these
essential software platforms.
Enter a new company,Pathstream, which just announced a partnership with tech leader Unity and previously
Pathstream supports thedelivery of career-critical software skill training in VR/AR and digital marketing at colleges and
universities.
According to Pathstream co-founder Eleanor Cooper, the company was created from piecing together two insights
First, graduates aren''t getting the digital skills they need to be hired
Employers are so frustrated that they no longer believe that new grads are qualified for digital jobs; according to a recent survey of more
than 95,000 job postings by TalentWorks, 61 percent of positions that say they&re seeking entry-level employees now specify at least three
years or more of relevant work experience
Second, tech companies are struggling to reach new generations of learners.
While today college graduates are &digital natives,& these
natives have been conditioned on Netflix-like interfaces, and aren''t accustomed to laborious software configurations, or the steep learning
curves required to master a software platform.
As a result, Cooper says Pathstream makes learning a new software platformlive up to student
expectations of receiving &joy before pain,& thereby gently nudging college students down the road to mastery
In addition, rather than traditional classroom-based learning, Pathstream platform simulates a work environment, where students complete
tasks and projects on the platform, build a portfolio of work and earn a certification from both a higher education institution and the
software company.
Facebook is using Pathstream to support training students on its digital marketing platform, includingsocial media
marketing using Facebook Ad Manager and Instagram .Parisa Zagat, Policy Programs Manager at Facebook, related the partnership with
Pathstream to itspledgein June to train 1 million United States small business owners on the digital skills they need to compete in today
workplace.
Unity is focusing its training on VR/AR courses for industry use cases (construction, manufacturing, automotive, enterprise
Jessica Lindl, Global Head of Education at Unity, said &in orderto gain employment in today digitally focused world, job-seekers are
required to rapidly up-level their skills.
Image: Getty Images/smartboy10/DigitalVision
The problem is there a significant education gap
between those who seek to learn these skills and the programs available to them
With Pathstream, we will be able to provide interactive programs for students of all backgrounds to learn real-world software platforms in
their own way, making it easier and more efficient for them to find success in their current career path or a new one.
While it completes
training programs for Facebook and Unity, Pathstream is building out a network of colleges that will offer the curriculum to students
Recently, Facebook announced that Pathstream will be offering digital marketing certificates at Central New Mexico Community College and Des
Moines Area Community College
According to Zagat,&By the end of the year, Facebook plans to form a total of 20 partnerships with community colleges across the country,
working hand-in-hand with Pathstream and the colleges tobuildout customcurriculums and programsfor thesepartnerships.
Cooper says that
&colleges and universities understand that their students are focused on employment, and specifically on getting a good first job
Today students no longer buy the line that college prepares you for your fifth job, not your first job
They know that if you don''t get a good first job, you&re probably not going to get a good fifth job.& And, as she points out, most good
first jobs specifically require one or more technologies like Facebook or Unity — technologies that colleges and universities aren''t
teaching.
If Pathstream is able to realize its vision of integrating industry-relevant software training into degree programs in a big way,
colleges and universities have a shot at maintaining their stranglehold as the sole pathway to successful careers
If Pathstream impact is more limited, watch for millions of students to sidestep traditional colleges, and enroll in emerging faster and
cheaper alternative pathways to good first jobs — alternative pathways that will almost certainly integrate the kind of last-mile training
being pioneered by Pathstream.
