Andrew Barras says:
Universities aren’t selling skills and competencies, they are selling degrees. That creates a disconnect between them and their customers. The ones that resolve this disconnect are the ones that will survive the next 10 years.
via http://educationstormfront.wordpress.com/2014/03/21/an-example-of-how-degrees-matter-less
Or, why badges are what we need, even though employers don’t realize it yet?
Still getting used to word press so apologies if my link back to this article from my blog got botched.
We are seeing this reality play out today in the IT field where it’s less relevant what university you graduated from and much more important to hiring managers whether you have a portfolio of code (programs) to show what you can do. Many universities, in fact, do a disservice to their IT graduates by not requiring that they create a portfolio of work.
I chose universities for graduate studies very carefully and am still associated with both Royal Roads University in Canada and Fielding Graduate University in the U.S. In their own distinctive ways, they both take skills and competencies very seriously. That is why I have chosen to teach and supervise major projects and theses at Royal Roads: competency-based assessment makes a huge difference in the learning experience.
I have been associated with other higher education institutions in various ways and realize this sort of focus is unusual.