News & Views posts.
Americans struggling to find and keep jobs amid the global pandemic are discovering a clear path to employment: high-quality credentials that prove both knowledge and skills.
Even before COVID-19 hit, higher education was falling short of providing the skills needed for good jobs, a recent study shows. Now, amid the global pandemic and economic crisis, those skills gaps are growing wider.
Fred Strader used to be a panhandler, manning his Downtown spot each day at the corner of Meridian and Maryland streets. He held up signs telling passersby he was the mayor of that street corner. He joked with them and flashed a big smile. Most days, with his jovial personality, Strader could pull in $50 to $75.
Zavion Herron landed an internship at the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Civic Innovation while a student at Riley High School in South Bend. He loved the cause. He loved the work. But he loved the opportunity even more.
Whenever Morgan Awe got discouraged or stuck as she navigated her college journey, she had three “amazing women” she could call. They would lend an ear, give advice, and help her work through any obstacles she faced on her path to higher education.
This morning, it appears many 2020 races — notably a divisive presidential election — won’t be decided for a longer period than we’re accustomed to, as many paper ballots are yet to be counted.
When people ask what kind of learning we need to offer students in this age of smart machines, I start with a one-word answer: wide.
Learning from a news article that a longtime colleague died is tough. Learning that his death came just weeks after the passing of another colleague is even tougher. The higher-than-usual losses we’ve experienced during the pandemic have put in stark relief the sense of incalculable loss this disaster has instilled in all of us, especially with the loss of those who committed so much to the well-being of others and cannot be properly mourned.
We talk a lot about machines when it comes to changes in the workplace, but I like to talk about people. As a guest on the show Inside Indiana Business recently, my message was that the nature of work is fundamentally changing, so workers must change and adapt.
As headlines about higher education go, this has to be one of the most clever: “Highbrow Robbery: The Colleges Call It Tuition, We Call It Plunder.” The opening line was: “Everybody seems to agree these days that college costs too much.” The date of the story, from one of my back issues of the excellent Washington Monthly magazine: 1983.