The path to skills-first education at university

We often hear that what employers want most is to hire people with experience, as relevant to the role as possible. If this holds true, colleges (universities) should deliver graduates with experience. Would this save the traditional degree and reduce the cost? While considering this, I have tried to imagine universities completely pivoting to an “experience-first” model.

In other words, a future state where university and preparatory work are woven together to get the best of both worlds. Yet, that seems impossible for most traditional universities because they would be offering a different product from the one they offer today and, frankly, one they are not even authorised to shift to, given the current confines of financial aid and accreditation – not to mention the different skills their own workforce would require.

But, let’s consider what university would look like with an experience-first model. Universities might not be in the business of teaching in classrooms; they would be in the business of teaching on the job or teaching in the context of the job, as apprentice supervisors do. Is that what students, parents and returning adults want out of university? They certainly signal that in surveys before and after they experience higher education (as indicated in the 2023 National Alumni Career Mobility Survey, for example). If consumers can acquire knowledge on their phones, should universities provide a different take on knowledge by offering skills mastery and validation services related to careers?

The shift to skills first

Many workforce advocates and intermediaries are using the term “skills first” to frame the shift that needs to happen. But I would argue that only a few universities are set up to live in that world.

What I have seen in my own research and focus groups over the years is that university students don’t know what they need until after they get into the hiring game, after they graduate.

This presents a design challenge for universities. Students rely on their professors and advisers to prepare them for work. One student at University of Texas (UT) at Austin, Brody Feldberg, was motivated to take a certificate in data analytics because his brother, an Apple employee, convinced him that Google certificates could really help him get hired. So, Feldberg made time by reducing his courseload in the final term of his last year as an undergraduate and, yes, he felt the certificate and his comfort level talking about the related skills made a difference when he hit the job market with his more theory-based economics degree.

“I think it definitely gave me a leg up in interviews, for sure, because I leveraged it to the best of my ability… I always say that my degree gave me the problem-solving ability and the certificate gave me the technical ability to solve any problem,” Feldberg shared.

Two barriers stand in the way before we will see the microcredential floodgates open: time and cost to students (who already have steep time commitments and tuition bills) and a lack of faculty buy-in to include certificates inside a college major.

Experience-first education requires us to validate skills. It’s one thing to tell students: “These are the skills you are learning,” but it’s quite another to help them acquire an industry-recognised credential.

The UT System jumped into the game in 2022 with a big play, in clear Texas style. If you or I wanted to earn a microcredential on Coursera, it would have cost us a monthly membership fee of $49 in 2024. UT is committed to covering those costs for its students and hopes to raise more money from the Texas legislature if these early pilots show positive outcomes for filling talent gaps, or at least higher alumni satisfaction with degree value. Early satisfaction surveys at UT show positive results.

Getting faculty buy-in

But the second barrier is tougher to break through and many faculty members might be resistant to building their classes around what is essentially corporate training. The faculty buy-in challenge is difficult and has kept a large number of universities from moving forward. The recent UT grad, Feldberg, who now uses his data analytics tools on the job as a cost analyst for an engineering consultancy, recommends baking the certificates into specific classes. In fact, he has been retaking the data analytics certificate in his part-time MBA programme at UT Austin where the professor is weaving the Google modules directly into his classes. He believes it’s easier to absorb the material this way, compared to a learn-on-your-own extra credit approach.

Faculty have told me time and again in every type of institution that the effort to integrate these real-world and contextual learning opportunities into their courses adds too much to their workload given the efficacy data currently available. They also say there isn’t enough time in the schedule to fit additional modules directly into the class schedule and I can attest to this myself as an adjunct professor.

UT addressed this by starting the initiative with faculty, introducing cash stipends to 200 teaching and instructional design staff to become certified to manage the microcredentialing process for their students. That seems important because if you go to Coursera’s website, there are more than 1,600 certificates mixed in with thousands of courses. If we are asking faculty in these cases to move from being a “sage on the stage” to a “guide on the side,” they still have to understand the outside curriculum and the context, as well as the hiring power of each certificate.

This article is adapted from Who Needs College Anymore? Imagining a Future Where Degrees Won’t Matter by Kathleen deLaski, published by Harvard Education Press.