A study by the National Training Laboratories states that only about 5% of information delivered through lecture is retained, compared to the 70% retained when learning by doing. Even so, I had just a handful of teachers during my four years of undergrad who prompted me to apply my learnings to real-life business problems. Not- “Here’s a problem that someone once had, and here’s how they solved it.” I’m talking, “Here’s a problem that has never been solved. Solve it.”
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Higher ed, as it currently exists, does not move fast enough to adequately prepare students for the hyper-evolving tech world, and it comes down to fundamental differences in culture and learning methodologies. As innovators, our work is about progress and disruption, rooted in the quickly-changing demands of consumers-- not static textbook theory. Higher education needs a serious makeover if it wants to successfully shape the future employees of the Chicago startup community.
Between U of Chicago and Northwestern, Loyola and U of I, Greater Chicago is home to some of the finest educational institutions in the country. Still, in the startup community, conventional methods of higher education are not living up to their increasingly higher price tags. While I can’t speak for every university, this guy is pretty certain computer science majors at universities focus on terminology and analysis, using programming languages that have been obsolete for years. I bet he’s not alone. The problem is, the highly bureaucratic nature of these universities stunts any real progress because changes to curriculum and new course offerings need to pass lengthy approval processes.
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Digital marketers grapple to keep up with Google’s constantly-changing rules for search. There’s no way that marketing professors are able to stay fully-versed in these same practices from the distance of academia. In fact, a 2006 study showed that 3 in 5 STEM professors didn’t even have field experience in their discipline (and given rock-solid tenure laws, it’s likely that this stat hasn’t budged much in the years since). Sixty percent! Imagine if 60% of the people at your company had zero experience.
A survey of several thousand knowledge workers by Robert Kelley at Carnegie Mellon University asks a simple question: “What percentage of the knowledge you need to do your job is stored in your own mind?” In 1986, the average percentage was 75%. Ten years after the rise of the Internet, that percentage had dropped to 8-10%. This staggering statistic means that at least 90% of the knowledge needed by today’s tech workforce is accessible to everyone. What isn't? Authentic field experience.
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By it’s very nature and definition, everything we do as innovators is on the bleeding-edge. If it’s not, we’re probably not growing as fast as we could be. Growing startups are looking for the people who have the know-how-- and the guts-- to build the plane while it’s in flight. Startup teams face-off against the disheartening odds that say they’re more likely to fail than succeed, bootstrapping creative solutions with limited funds and resources. There is no textbook. In fact, working for a fast-failed startup oftentimes looks better on your resume than $100,000 spent at a 4-year college. It’s an unofficial club that carries the same weight as your alma mater.
High-growth companies are fast-paced, action-oriented, and future-focused, so they need to hire people with experience learning new skills on the job. This is where higher ed falls short-- slowed by institutional bureaucracy and industry detachment, and focusing on lectures and out-dated concepts, rather than gaining real experience. We have a talent gap in the Chicago tech sector and in many U.S. cities, and we need to rethink education for the innovation economy.
