new OneClass study which polled more than 10,000 current freshmen, sophomores, and juniors from 200-plus colleges and universities across the country, found, because of COVID-19, 56% of college students say they're no longer able to afford tuition. While college completion rates were on the rise just a year ago, the numbers are bound to decline.
The impact of COVID-19 has forced higher education to develop new programs for financial aid, remote learning, but few have developed strategies, outside work-study programs, to get their students into the labor market as quickly as possible.
Faster and cheaper pathways to good jobs are needed now more than ever. Career seekers are looking for a silver lining to the pandemic and, fortunately, that has accelerated the development of new pathways into the future workforce.
The Important Concept of “New Collar”
In the United States, about 88% graduate from high school, but only 33% complete college. And even after college, many organizations discover their new hires are not prepared for the workforce.
There’s a real surge in the number of modern middle-class jobs in tech that do not require a traditional bachelor’s degree. They’re not blue collar. They’re not white collar. IBM calls them New Collar. These are roles that prioritize capabilities over a traditional degree. They’re in leading technology industry fields like cloud computing and cyber security, digital design, and cognitive business. What matters most for these roles is finding people who have the right mix of skills to deliver these capabilities for clients.
The founders of Apple, Microsoft, and Oracle never graduated from college, so most hiring managers would have screened them from the applicant pool. But we have the opportunity to change that.
The college degree was designed to provide exclusivity in the labor market. As we work to create a more diverse, inclusive workforce, we must rethink the impact and value of these high stakes credentials, particularly in entry level roles.
The Emergence of Certificate Programs and Badges
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, employment of computer and information technology occupations is projected to grow 12% from 2018 to 2028, much faster than the average for all occupations. These occupations are projected to add about 546,000 new jobs. Demand for these workers will stem from greater emphasis on cloud computing, the collection and storage of big data, and information security.
In a post-COVID world, how can job seekers who do not possess a college credential—or who now are not planning to obtain one—signal their achievements and employability for these in-demand roles? That’s where badges and digital certificates come in.
Certificate programs and badges have emerged as signals of achievement in an unpredictable, rapidly changing world. Technologies have accelerated the pace of change in these new roles to the point where skills become outdated in months, not years. The world needs a better way to build these fast-changing “liquid” skills and issue verified credentials which employers will trust.
At IBM, we value the skills of New Collar individuals and created a certificate program designed to develop a pre-evaluated, pre-trained, “ready to work” talent pool. We’ve attracted top-tier talent through the New Collar Certificate Program, and other companies can similarly leverage badge and digital certification programs. In the time of COVID-19, it could even be a requirement.
IBM’s design for its New Collar Certificate Program provides a model other organizations can emulate. The elements are straightforward and provide an end-to-end solution:
1. Assess the candidate. Start with a science-based, non-biased assessment to uncover innate cognitive skills, abilities, and personality traits to help match candidates to careers where they will excel. Too many people start careers and later (too much later) realize they are dead ends or a bad fit. It’s a big expense, and it takes time out of people’s lives.
2. Provide first mile training. Provide candidates with essential training, which will help onboard as quickly as possible. Online training options provide the best way to offer flexible, scalable, globally consistent programs that will prepare a candidate for hire as quickly as possible. When designing the training, use a robust job-task analysis approach to make sure you are providing the specific role-based learning that somebody needs to get in the door to their new career. This is all about building essential skills and not about fulfilling a set number of hours in a classroom.
3. Host experiential learning. Create experiential learning opportunities—everything from pre-apprenticeships to apprenticeships to internships—to allow a candidate to experience the unexpected side of work that cannot be taught in a classroom.
At every step along the way, offer digital badges for achievements. Badges encourage progression by providing valuable incentives for achieving milestones. At the end of the entire program, provide a higher value certificate, which can also be represented by a digital badge.
Diversity and Inclusion: The Unintended, Magnificent Side Benefit
In a post-COVID world, organizations and career-seekers should establish an “all of the above” mindset which includes community colleges, universities, and other higher education institutions, but adds skills through certificate programs, coding camps, or modern career education programs like the P-TECH model or tech apprenticeship programs.
When you focus on skills and abilities, not golden pedigrees, you can shift mindsets to make the labor market more diverse and inclusive. You can look beyond traditional talent pools and provide opportunities for people who may have been disenfranchised because of their non-traditional backgrounds, geography or lack of diplomas.
And that may be the shiniest silver lining which emerges from our present circumstances.
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Can Badge & Certification Programs Accelerate the Post-COVID-19 Recovery?
Photo by Aidan McGloin via Unsplash.
August 3, 2020
Amid COVID-19, higher education institutions have largely failed to develop new strategies to get students into the labor market as quickly as possible. Yet with the pandemic, faster and cheaper pathways to good jobs are needed now more than ever.
A
new OneClass study which polled more than 10,000 current freshmen, sophomores, and juniors from 200-plus colleges and universities across the country, found, because of COVID-19, 56% of college students say they're no longer able to afford tuition. While college completion rates were on the rise just a year ago, the numbers are bound to decline.
The impact of COVID-19 has forced higher education to develop new programs for financial aid, remote learning, but few have developed strategies, outside work-study programs, to get their students into the labor market as quickly as possible.
Faster and cheaper pathways to good jobs are needed now more than ever. Career seekers are looking for a silver lining to the pandemic and, fortunately, that has accelerated the development of new pathways into the future workforce.
The Important Concept of “New Collar”
In the United States, about 88% graduate from high school, but only 33% complete college. And even after college, many organizations discover their new hires are not prepared for the workforce.
There’s a real surge in the number of modern middle-class jobs in tech that do not require a traditional bachelor’s degree. They’re not blue collar. They’re not white collar. IBM calls them New Collar. These are roles that prioritize capabilities over a traditional degree. They’re in leading technology industry fields like cloud computing and cyber security, digital design, and cognitive business. What matters most for these roles is finding people who have the right mix of skills to deliver these capabilities for clients.
The founders of Apple, Microsoft, and Oracle never graduated from college, so most hiring managers would have screened them from the applicant pool. But we have the opportunity to change that.
The college degree was designed to provide exclusivity in the labor market. As we work to create a more diverse, inclusive workforce, we must rethink the impact and value of these high stakes credentials, particularly in entry level roles.
The Emergence of Certificate Programs and Badges
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, employment of computer and information technology occupations is projected to grow 12% from 2018 to 2028, much faster than the average for all occupations. These occupations are projected to add about 546,000 new jobs. Demand for these workers will stem from greater emphasis on cloud computing, the collection and storage of big data, and information security.
In a post-COVID world, how can job seekers who do not possess a college credential—or who now are not planning to obtain one—signal their achievements and employability for these in-demand roles? That’s where badges and digital certificates come in.
Certificate programs and badges have emerged as signals of achievement in an unpredictable, rapidly changing world. Technologies have accelerated the pace of change in these new roles to the point where skills become outdated in months, not years. The world needs a better way to build these fast-changing “liquid” skills and issue verified credentials which employers will trust.
At IBM, we value the skills of New Collar individuals and created a certificate program designed to develop a pre-evaluated, pre-trained, “ready to work” talent pool. We’ve attracted top-tier talent through the New Collar Certificate Program, and other companies can similarly leverage badge and digital certification programs. In the time of COVID-19, it could even be a requirement.
IBM’s design for its New Collar Certificate Program provides a model other organizations can emulate. The elements are straightforward and provide an end-to-end solution:
1. Assess the candidate. Start with a science-based, non-biased assessment to uncover innate cognitive skills, abilities, and personality traits to help match candidates to careers where they will excel. Too many people start careers and later (too much later) realize they are dead ends or a bad fit. It’s a big expense, and it takes time out of people’s lives.
2. Provide first mile training. Provide candidates with essential training, which will help onboard as quickly as possible. Online training options provide the best way to offer flexible, scalable, globally consistent programs that will prepare a candidate for hire as quickly as possible. When designing the training, use a robust job-task analysis approach to make sure you are providing the specific role-based learning that somebody needs to get in the door to their new career. This is all about building essential skills and not about fulfilling a set number of hours in a classroom.
3. Host experiential learning. Create experiential learning opportunities—everything from pre-apprenticeships to apprenticeships to internships—to allow a candidate to experience the unexpected side of work that cannot be taught in a classroom.
At every step along the way, offer digital badges for achievements. Badges encourage progression by providing valuable incentives for achieving milestones. At the end of the entire program, provide a higher value certificate, which can also be represented by a digital badge.
Diversity and Inclusion: The Unintended, Magnificent Side Benefit
In a post-COVID world, organizations and career-seekers should establish an “all of the above” mindset which includes community colleges, universities, and other higher education institutions, but adds skills through certificate programs, coding camps, or modern career education programs like the P-TECH model or tech apprenticeship programs.
When you focus on skills and abilities, not golden pedigrees, you can shift mindsets to make the labor market more diverse and inclusive. You can look beyond traditional talent pools and provide opportunities for people who may have been disenfranchised because of their non-traditional backgrounds, geography or lack of diplomas.
And that may be the shiniest silver lining which emerges from our present circumstances.
