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Our generation might be the most educated and the less prepared for entering the workforce.
In 2015–2019, 32.1% of Americans 25 years and older held at least a bachelor’s degree. This is a 5-point increase in 15 years. However, only 13% of Americans strongly agree that college graduates are well-prepared for success in the workplace.
The system is broken. Traditional academic programs are designed and taught without industry input. A student in a Computer Science program at CU Boulder, for instance, only learns about front-end development in her fourth semester. Instead, most of the foundational courses in this program are focused on Calculus, which is rarely used in day-to-day programming.
Don’t get me wrong. I think CS theory is important in developing a deeper understanding of algorithms. Still, every content choice involves a trade-off. When the average cost of in-state college is $25,615, spending time on non-essential coursework is expensive.
At Turing School and CeroUno, I have been involved in designing industry-based curriculum. The process starts with researching trends in the industry, but it doesn’t stop there. After gathering an initial understanding, we dive deeper by interviewing current professionals and hiring managers. Our objective with this process is to define a skill set needed to enter the workforce.
The next step is to translate these requirements into learning goals. We use these to define projects that will help us develop practical skills in students. We then develop the lessons and workshops that allow students obtain the essential tools to complete their projects. By doing so, our graduates will be ready to succeed in the tech industry.
The key differences between our method and the traditional curriculum-building process are several. Firstly, we reverse engineer our curriculum starting from industry needs. Secondly, we have clear learning goals that focus our curriculum development efforts. Finally, we use projects, and not courses, to anchor the skill set development of our students. This allows them to focus their attention and integrate their knowledge in single project.
Students see higher education as a means to enter the workforce and achieve economic freedom. Having a curriculum that will do that should be the priority of higher ed institutions.
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Jorge Téllez is Director General at CeroUno and Entrepreneur-In-Residence at Turing School of Software and Design.