Episodes
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As part of our continuing series on the future of work, we're sharing our conversation with Paul Fain on the shifting post secondary job ecosystem.
Paul Fain is a Freelance Journalist and Analyst who serves as the Editor of The Job Newsletter from Open Campus. Each week he provides a veteran journalist’s take on what to watch as postsecondary education and job training systems work to better serve lower-income learners and workers.
Paul joins host Mike Palmer in a discussion about recent trends he's been tracking through The Job and Work Shift, a related newsletter that tracks related topics through the reporting of local journalists. We explore emerging models that provide new pathways to traditionally underserved students using Riipen and Forage as examples. Then we dive into the work that Amazon has been doing in this area with its AWS Academy and other ventures outlined in a recent edition of The Job.
It's a far-reaching and informative conversation about a critical and underreported space that you won't want to miss.
Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more insightful takes on educational pathways and the future of work. -
As we continue our Future of Work Series, Mike Palmer introduces this conversation with Beth Porter from the Fall of 2021 when we talked about the emerging skills and mindsets critical to future leaders based on her experiences across her career, most recently with the leading Esme Learning.
Beth Porter is the President, CoFounder, and COO of Esme Learning, an executive education company focused on new and emerging skills. She has led multiple product and engineering teams to deliver high value, customer-focused educational technology products while serving in in product development, business strategy and operational roles. She also founded and is CEO of Riff Analytics, an AI-enabled collaboration platform, and is a researcher and lecturer at MIT and BU Questrom School of Business.
Beth joins host, Mike Palmer, in a free-flowing conversation about emerging trends in the skills ecosystem, the future of work, and in education and media. Beth shares her experiences beginning as a Math Teacher, then proceeding through a series of ed tech, customer service, and product management roles before studying at the MIT Media Lab where she founded Riff Analytics. She then describes what led to her founding Esme Learning with Co-Founder David Shrier.
From there we explore how to thrive through digital disruption and how social emotional skills like creativity, teamwork, and communication are an essential complement to technical expertise in the emerging work ecosystem. Beth highlights gamification and augmented reality as emerging trends to keep an eye on in an informative, future-focused conversation that you don't want to miss.
Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more insightful conversations about what's new and emerging. -
Episodes manquant?
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Kumar Garg is the Managing Director of Schmidt Futures, a venture facility for public benefit that recently cosponsored the Futures Forum on Learning Tools Competition with Citadel. Kumar joins our host, Mike Palmer, to talk about the winners of the tools competition who were recently announced and to provide his insights and perspectives on learning engineering as well as trends in educational technology and computational thinking.
Kumar begins by sharing his origin story which includes an eight-year run in the Obama administration heading up its efforts to grow and develop STEM education in the US. From there we explore the idea of learning engineering which combines insights in computer science, computational thinking, and big data with emerging insights in learning science to create scalable breakthrough innovations in education. Kumar walks through the structure and design of the competition and reflects on the benefits of connecting entrepreneurial innovation with academic research and scientific methods to unlock learning innovation at scale.
From there, we discuss Rising on Air and UPchieve as case studies of the types of programs that emerged from the competition before concluding with Kumar's thoughts on the importance of R&D and infrastructure funding to drive the next generation of the learning ecosystem.
It's an insightful and far-reaching conversation about the future of Ed Tech that you won't want to miss.
If you're enjoying what you're hearing, subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you listen to your podcasts. Check us out at TrendinginEd.com for more. -
Frances Valintine is the CEO and Founder of both The Mind Lab and Tech Futures Lab, innovative education providers for adults wishing to upskill, reskill, stay relevant and embrace change. recently wrote her first book, titled Future You which is available in New Zealand and soon internationally. She joins host Mike Palmer in a conversation about skills, disruption, and future-proofing your career path with special attention to mid-career professionals.
We begin by hearing Frances' origin story beginning in technology in London in the 1980s and a subsequent career path that has focused increasingly on education and the future of work. This leads to a conversation about The Mind Lab and Tech Futures Lab where mid-career professionals get targeted training in the skills and competencies needed to succeed in the rapidly evolving job market of the 21st Century.
Frances shares her takes on leadership, managing through disruption, the skills economy, and more in a thought-provoking exploration of the realities of reskilling lifelong learners for the modern workplace. We conclude with a few fun facts about the Kiwi, the national bird of New Zealand. Don't miss it!
Subscribe to Welcome to the Future of Work wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more sharp takes on the future of learning. -
Mike welcomes Jeff Gothelf, author of Forever Employable: How to Stop looking for Work and Let Your Next Job Find You. Jeff starts by talking about his early days in rock’n’roll and Web 1.0. Leading a design team in the early days, he and his team had to find a way to match their processes to the then ascendent agile software development process. Jeff was then able to leverage this new approach into a book, Lean UX, and from there into teaching.
More recently, he has responded to his audience by expounding on a “continuous pull” model of letting clients come to you. You need to establish credibility with your audience, and then frequently and consistently provide them with what they want, adapting to the signals they send you.
Jeff elaborates on finding the right focus, and how you can deal with “imposter syndrome” by just “shipping it”. Jeff also notes how you can learn from thought leaders both within your field and beyond. Mike asks about the future, and Jeff says he plans to continue deeper into the “creator economy”. He finishes explaining how Forever Employable can provide you the freedom to work when and how you want.
If you like what you’re hearing, follow us at TrendinginEducation.com and wherever you get your podcasts. -
Mike dives into a recent report published by Udemy, the global learning platform, on the trends they're seeing around usage of skills training programs on their platform. The report provided by Udemy Business is designed for learning leaders, strategic HR professionals, and individuals looking for perspective on which skills are most critical to pursue and how organizations and individuals can get strategic about designing career paths and retention strategies leveraging learning as a benefit. We also reference reports from McKinsey along with an HBR article on email management in case you want to dive deeper.
We begin with a deep dive into power skills as a better name for what has traditionally been called soft skills. We learn which power skills are surging on the platform and how these trends relate to the Great Resignation and related trends around personal development, leadership, and communication. Power skills form the foundation of effective cultures and learning organizations. Once understood, other emerging competencies can be layered into organizations and individuals to better prepare for a rapidly changing world of work.
Then we get into the digital marketing, product management, project management, finance/accounting, and UX/UI skills that are popping based on usage on Udemy's platform. We conclude with an exploration of the more technical skills in cloud computing, cybersecurity, data science, and software development in a broad survey of recent trends in skill development. It's a thought provoking exploration of strategic skill development and the future of work that you won't want to miss.
Subscribe to Trending in Education wherever you get your podcasts. Be on the lookout for our new dedicated TiE feed on the Future of Work which will be launching shortly. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more details on this and much more. -
Michelle Weise is the author of Long Life Learning: Preparing for Jobs That Don't Even Exist Yet. Michelle is also a Vice Chancellor, Strategy and Innovation at National University System. On this episode, she joins Mike Palmer to discuss her new book and how we can reimagine our learning ecosystem in response to longer lifespans, automation, and rapid transformation of the 21st Century.
We begin with Michelle’s origin story, how she moved from being an English professor into educational technology including stints at Clayton Christensen’s Institute for Disruptive Innovation, Southern New Hampshire University, and Strada Education Network. Michelle notes the difficulty of predicting actual future careers, and how her book focuses on the type of worker and the type of problem solver we all need to become. We need to offload much of the current tasks that AI can do better while developing both our “human-plus” skills as well as the technical expertise required to exercise judgment.
Mike and Michelle discuss “T-shaped” learners, and how they develop over a long career. Michelle talks about later-life learners, and how they can profitably upskill. Pursuing a four-year degree may not appeal to 55+ learners, and even the current MOOCs may not meet their needs.
Given all the challenges, Mike asks Michelle to provide some hope. She tells him how Clay Christensen helped her stay optimistic, and how the wide variety of innovators should stick to the shared agenda of creating a robust ecosystem: breaking down the walls that obtain between K-12, higher ed, and workforce learning. And how the pandemic has further exposed this need.
Mike and Michelle discuss the work of Suzanne Simard regarding the surprising subterranean ecosystem of trees and how it can serve as a model of the idealized education ecosystem. They then discuss the power of such metaphors. They also note David Epstein’s Range, and the importance of the generalist in the world of specialization. “Far transfer” is also on the table.
Finally, Michelle discusses “skills compasses”. Enterprises often do not know the skills their employees have, and let them go despite their potential usefulness. She notes a few innovative companies that help those laid off find the training they need to meet the skills demanded in their labor market.
There's plenty to explore in this conversation you don't want to miss!
For further information:
Emsi
Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree
SkyHive
Future Fit
The Americans with Disabilities Act
How to Find Michelle:
Twitter: @rwmichelle
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwmichelle/
riseanddesign.io
How to Find Mike:
Twitter: @TrendingInEd
Email: [email protected]
If you like what you’re hearing, follow us at TrendinginEducation.com and wherever you get your podcasts. -
Host Mike Palmer is joined by Ruth, his virtual cohost, in a free-flowing conversation about highlights and initial thoughts heading into Season 1. We begin with highlights from conversations in Season 1 with Michelle Weiss, Jeff Gothelf, Francis Valintine, Kumar Garg, and Beth Porter.
From there we enter into a lightning round showcasing conversations with Paul Fain, Ryan Craig, Jane Oates, and Kathleen Delaski as we kick off a dedicated feed on the Future of Work from you friends at Trending in Education.
Subscribe to Trending in Ed - The Future of Work wherever you get your podcasts. Visit us at TrendinginEd.com for more.
