Wall Street Journal - Industry Puts Heat on Schools to Teach the Tech Skills Employers Need

For years, Neumont has been saying that our curriculum bridges the gap between what traditional universities are teaching, and what industry is looking to hire.  And, today's Wall Street Journal pointed out the exact problem Neumont was designed in order to try to addess:

Wall Street Journal Education Section, June 6, 2011
James Hagerty

Industry Puts Heat on Schools to Teach the Tech Skills Employers Need


Big U.S. employers, worried about replacing retiring baby boomers, are wading deeper into education and growing bolder about telling educators how to run their business. Several initiatives have focused on manufacturing and engineering, fields where technical know-how and math and science skills are needed and where companies worry about recruiting new talent. Their concerns are borne out by the math and science test scores of 15-year-old students in the U.S., which continue to lag behind China, Japan, South Korea and Germany, for example.

Photo: Wall Street Journal, June 6, 2011

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a report in May that said higher education had failed to "tap the potential of digital technology" in ways that would "transform learning, dramatically lower costs or improve overall institutional productivity."The Chamber report praised Internet educational institutions like Khan Academy, which built its reputation on YouTube.com math lessons.

The National Association of Manufacturers is leading a drive, partly funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to establish standardized curricula at community colleges across the U.S. with the goal of preparing students to qualify for certification in industrial skills ranging from welding to cutting metal and plastics.

The association isn't pushing for an end to liberal-arts education, but has said bright students should be encouraged to consider alternatives that lead directly to jobs. "We need to move aggressively to competency-based education" based on mastery of skills at the student's own pace, rather than on an accumulation of credit hours, said Emily DeRocco, president of the Manufacturing Institute, a research arm of the group.

One such employer effort is the National Math and Science Initiative, launched in 2007. The program, with $163 million of funding commitments from companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. as well as foundations and the federal government, trains math and science teachers and gives more high school students a chance to enroll in college-level courses.

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Competency based education is what Neumont University is all about, although mixed in with the standard General Education courses students would take at any bachelor's degree granting institution.  Students work in project groups and are graded on project outcomes . . . how well can you apply what you've learned into building a REAL technology solution.  This ensures that students have not only the necessary theoretical foundations of a topic, but the applied knowledge of how those theories can be used in Industry.  This unique approach is changing the way the nation's employers look at the crop of 2011 graduates, and is just one reason 100% of Neumont's 2010 graduates accepted offers in field within six months of graduation.