The Education Gap and Hybrid Degrees
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In many technical industries there is a shortage of qualified talent. This can be simply called, "the education gap." In many industries there is a clear divide between those that excel and the rest. The education gap can also be seen from the miss match in messages between the industries who state, "there is an employee shortage" and the job seekers such as those on LinkedIn who have data driven degrees yet remain unemployed. How do we solve this problem? I don't have a simple solution but educators and employers need to take a hard look at the problem instead of ignoring it.
The second topic covered in this podcast is the new hybrid/STEM MBA programs. For many this looks like a step in the right direction for the education gap however this is far from a solution and is more hurtful in most situations. Business programs end up tacking on a few analytics courses and then get a STEM designation. This helps increase MBA programs' application numbers which have been falling due to the shift towards data driven skills. This also help international students stay in the US longer to look for a job. The real problem arises when you look at what companies are needing in employees, more technical skills. Many of the graduates with technical degrees such as Masters and PhDs in statistics, mathematics, and computer science end up unemployed or under-employed in the sense that they might end up in a non-technical job. Companies are wanting very specific skills which might not be taught at a deep enough level to make those graduates useful without heavy investment in training (which I feel is one way to help address the problem). Now you take business students who have a little bit of business education and a little bit of more technical education and where do they fit in this picture? The pure business roles want pure business students and perhaps someone specialized in an area like finance, accounting, or marketing. The technical companies want students with very deep understanding of technical matter which they are struggling to find in pure STEM degrees. This leaves these hybrid students in a position where they have no-where to go. Maybe the degrees are useful however companies haven't created the perfect role for them yet. But in general these hybrid degrees don't look to be a god idea...at least for the students and companies. \\xa0