A Human Reason to Address the Skills Gap

"...a human reason to address the skills gap..." << from Jeanne Meister's review of The Expertise Economy (full review below). It's always been about the human reasons for me...these problems in education: debt, relevancy, immobility...they affect lives. 

I worked multiple jobs through college: held a part-time job at Altiris (now Symantec) as a Sales Analyst, but also worked on top of that as an ACT tutor, and a different job as a Teacher's Aid...that allowed me to pay for books, food, car, dates, and my apartment; but only because I was also on scholarship did I graduate debt free. It took scholarship plus multiple jobs...and I am one of the lucky ones.

If I had had student debt, Degreed wouldn't exist. And the world would find its way...it isn't to overstate Degreed's impact, but in a world where I had had student debt, I wouldn't of been able to survive getting Degreed off the ground. And it has made an enormous difference in my life and today employs ~250 people. How many opportunities like Degreed, or far better, has the world missed out on because would-be innovators, and entrepreneurs, and pioneers of other fields were saddled with student debt or not given a pathway to develop the skills to unlock their dreams?

Kelly Palmer and I wrote a business management book but the motivations have always been about helping people. Education should unlock your dreams, not be the barrier or anchor that keeps you from them.

"The Expertise Economy is a unicorn among business books. It presents a human and business reason to address the skills gap in a holistic way with suggestions for how universities, companies and individuals can work together to prepare for the future workplace." ― Jeanne C Meister, Future Workplace