Description
Book SynopsisAn extraordinary confluence of forces stemming from automation and digital technologies is transforming both the world of work and the ways we educate current and future employees to contribute productively to the workplace.
The Great Skills Gap opens with the premise that the exploding scope and pace of technological innovation in the digital age is fast transforming the fundamental nature of work. Due to these developments, the skills and preparation that employers need from their talent pool are shifting. The accelerated pace of evolution and disruption in the competitive business landscape demands that workers be not only technically proficient, but also exceptionally agile in their capacity to think and act creatively and quickly learn new skills.
This book explores how these transformative forces are—or should be—driving innovations in how colleges and universities prepare students for their careers. Focused on the impact of this confluence of forces at the nexus of work and higher education, the book's contributors—an illustrious group of leading educators, prominent employers, and other thought leaders—answer profound questions about how business and higher education can best collaborate in support of the twenty-first century workforce.
Trade Review"Few topics have generated as much attention as the future of work, yet we have given almost no attention to the bigger role that higher education plays in supporting careers.
The Great Skills Gap is the first book to take on that question by offering a comprehensive assessment of the challenges and opportunities facing higher education from all perspectives. A must-read for those interested in its future."
—Peter Cappelli, George W. Taylor Professor of Management, Director of Center for Human Resources, University of Pennsylvania
"
The Great Skills Gap explores how higher education institutions and employers can tackle the difficult problem – but crucial obligation – of preparing our workforce for lifelong, productive careers in a world of ever-increasing disruption and reliance on digital skills. Wingard and Farrugia challenge us to reimagine existing models of higher education and corporate learning to address long-term talent needs while building a broader, more inclusive talent pool with the digital resilience to thrive in work and life."
—Mariana Garavaglia, Chief People & Business Operations Officer at Peloton, Board Member at Wiley & Sons
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The Great Skills Gap shows us what we can have if employers, educators, and policymakers collaborate – a future of meaningful learning and rewarding careers for a diverse workforce. Only the partnership of educators and employers makes possible the charting of learning pathways combining liberal arts education with technological skills needed for the digital age. By collaborating to make transparent these pathways in learner-centered systems of credentials, we lay the foundation for broader access to learning and the promotion of diversity and inclusion in the workplace."
—Leah VanWey, Dean of the School of Professional Studies and Professor of Sociology, Brown University
"Talent development executives must address the skill readiness of adults at many career stages. This outstanding collection of expert perspectives examines many facets of the partnership between higher education and business. The authors and editors inspire imperatives for future improvement, especially as related to post-traditional students. An essential read."
—Ann E. Schulte, Vice President of Global Talent Development, The Procter & Gamble Company
"
The Great Skills Gap provides critically needed focus and breadth exploring one of the most urgent education, business, and public policy challenges we face today: how we innovate, scale, and orchestrate new hybrid education and work strategies for dynamic reinvention. This is a timely and important resource for business, education, labor, and government leaders."
—Jeff Schwartz, US Leader of Future of Work, Deloitte Consulting LLP, author of
Work Disrupted"
The Great Skill Gap: Optimizing Talent for the Future of Work is a worthy bookshelf addition for anyone concerned about meeting the labour needs of tomorrow: employers, continuing education instructors, undergraduate educators, workers themselves, and even legislators."—Eric A. Sader,
International Review of EducationTable of ContentsPart I Introduction
—Neil Irwin
1. Equipping a New Generation with the Skills Needed in the Automation Age
—Susan Lund, Bryan Hancock
2. The Role of Citizen Developers in Developing Technological Literacy
—Lance Braunstein
3. The Future of Work: Four Difficult Questions I Need to Ask Myself as an Employer
—Matthew Pittinsky
4. Why Geography is So Important
—Michael L. Ulica
5. Enabling a High-Performing, Human-Centered Organization in Pfizer's Upjohn Division
—Amrit Ray, Lu Hong, Trish White
6. How the Future of Work Impacts the Workforce of Technical Organizations
—Gregory L. Robinson
7. Corporate Learning and Development Has a Vital Role to Play in the Robotics Revolution—Is It Ready?
—Uli Heitzlhofer
Part II Introduction
—Joseph Wiliams
8. Supporting Unlearning to Enable Upskilling
—Chris Dede
9. Higher Education's Changing Faces: Serving STEM Learners for a Lifetime
—Yakut Gazi, Nelson Baker
10. The Future of Business Education: New Economies of Automation, Certification, and Scale
—Anne Trumbore
11. "Back to the Future": Fragile Workers, Higher Education, and the Future Knowledge Economy
—Earl Lewis, Alford Young Jr., Justin Shaffner, Julie Arbit
12. Evolution of the Liberal Arts
—Christopher Mayer
13. The Evolution of Liberal Education in a Technology-Mediated, Global Society
—Kelly J. Otter
14. The Core and the Adult Student
—David Schejbal
15. Perpetual Learning as Alumni Engagement: Renewing the Social Contract
—Matthew Rascoff, James DeVaney
Part III Introduction
—Lauren Weber
16. Harnessing the Power and Potential of Diversity and Inclusion
—Stephanie Bell-Rose, Anne Ollen
17. Public Education and the Future of Work
—Ross Wiener
18. Developing Workers for the Workplace: How Businesses and Higher Education Can Alleviate Worker Barriers to Retraining or Upskilling
—X. Susan Zhu, Alexander Alonso, Johnny C. Taylor
19. Past is Prologue: Apprenticeship and the Future of Work
—Mary Alice McCarthy
20. Bachelor's-Level Registered Apprenticeship for Engineers: Possibilities and Challenges
—Daniel Kuehn
21. The Agility Imperative: The Future of Work and Business-Higher Education Partnerships
—Jason A. Tyszko, Robert G. Sheets
22. Demand for the "Blended Digital Professional"
—Brian K. Fitzgerald, Isabel Cardenas-Navia, Janet Chen
23. A Coherent Approach to Connect Education and the Future of Work
—LaVerne Srinivasan, Elise Henson, Farhad Asghar
Conclusion
—Jason Wingard, Christine Faruggia
