Professor Matthew Hora, author of “Beyond the Skills Gap,” discusses the complexities of workforce development and his recommendations for reform in higher ed.
How to Prepare College Students for Life and Work

Professor Matthew Hora, author of “Beyond the Skills Gap,” discusses the complexities of workforce development and his recommendations for reform in higher ed.
MissionU, a heavily-hyped one-year alternative to college, has folded after a single year of operations. We consider the lessons and warning signs from this failure in the alt-college movement.
In Sitka, on the coast of southeast Alaska, a young group of visionaries has worked for over three years to launch a new, non-traditional college: Outer Coast. In this interview, members of the core planning team tell us about Outer Coast’s progress and the school’s deliberate, unusual model.
A new generation of educational vendors now combine canned content with personalized, structured assistance for job placement. We feature seven interesting startups in this area.
In another example of the “early college” trend, a Pennsylvania college has launched an innovative program where high school students can complete college credits–or even an Associate’s Degree–prior to graduation.
Big states like California and Florida show success in linking their two-year and four-year public schools, but we also see encouraging employment news for the Not Degree population. Also: is it bad for adjunct faculty to teach introductory courses?
Like Americans, the British suffer from familiar education problems such as massive student debt, institutional budget cuts, and skills gaps between employers’ needs and students’ qualifications. Unlike Americans, the British commonly address these problems through apprenticeships. In honor of the UK’s National Apprenticeship Week, we spoke with England’s “Apprentice Finder,” Adrian Bird, to learn more about the success of these programs.
Can ASU’s innovations inspire changes at schools across the nation? In his provocative speech to governors, President Michael Crow challenged the mindset that “only a lowlife scum university would be so foolish as to divert the energy of its elite faculty to educating college dropouts working at Starbucks.”
After years of listening to the concerns of students and other educators, Dr. Jones envisioned a better approach to higher education–but her solution was not to write a book about it. Instead, she founded an unorthodox 21st-century college, the Wayfinding Academy, from scratch! Learn more in our interview.
In response to a perceived crisis in faith within college communities, a new Christian college will open this fall in Boston–backed by $30 million of the founder’s money.