The Changing Role of
Higher Education:
Meeting the
Workforce Needs of
Today and Tomorrow
Organization of American States
April 1, 2015
Changing Learner Demographics
• Learners aged 25 and
over have grown by 41%
in the last decade and are
predicted to grow by
another 14% this decade.
• Since 2003, the number of students
taking at least one online course has
grown at a rate greater than that of the
overall higher education student body.
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Era of Exponential Change
• 65% of today’s grade school students will hold jobs
that don’t exist yet.
?
• We are preparing students for jobs that don’t exist
yet, using technologies that haven’t been invented
yet, in order to solve problems we don’t even know
are problems yet.
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Degree Knowledge Won’t Last Forever
• 90% of the world’s data
generated in past 2 years.
• Technical information
doubling every 2 years.
• Half of what college students learn in
their first year of study will be
outdated by their third year of study.
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Why should we care?
Individuals
• Obtain employment
• Stay relevant
• Career advancement
• Higher salary
• Licensing/certification
requirements
Avg. 11 jobs over the
course of a career
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64% of surveyed employers
reported difficulty in finding
qualified applicants for positions
Organizations
• Ensure globally competitive
• Enable strategy
• Better trained employees
• Build talent from within
• Lower recruitment costs
Stackable Credentials
MOOC
Non-credit
Online
Non-credit
Course
Completion
Certificate
Badge
Verified
Certificate
Sequence
Non-credit
Program
Certificate
Hybrid
Portion
Credit
Face-to-Face
Credit
Degree
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Professional certificates
make up 22% of all college
awards, up from 6% in 1980.
Professional Ed is Future of Higher Ed
• Developing more effective and relevant learning
solutions for students and employers.
• Not just technology, but transforming the model.
• Designing programs to give students real-world
solutions for the workplace.
• Content in chunks, not only credit hours.
• Broaden education beyond granting degrees.
• Competency based credentials.
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Georgia Tech Professional Education
•
•
•
•
GT MOOCs ~1M
GT Non-Credit ~15K
GT Online for Credit ~2.5K
Online learners 13% of
Tech’s overall headcount
• More than 2 dozen
PhDs in OMS CS
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Solutions Need Global Perspectives
 Served adult learners from 111 countries
 Presence in France, China, Panama, Costa Rica, Brazil...
 Georgia Tech is home to International Association of
Continuing Engineering Education, working with IFEES, UPADI
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Thank you
Contact:
Nelson Baker
Dean, Professional Education
Georgia Institute of Technology
Nelson.Baker@pe.gatech.edu
www.pe.gatech.edu
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