Updating College for the New Economy

The blog Savvy Intern (via Innovation Daily) posted the blog "I’m a Start-up CEO – And I Didn’t Learn S#&t in College".

In summary, the author proposes that college is likely doing an okay job of teaching traditional subjects such as accounting or economics, but that the way business is run now has nearly nothing to do with what is taught by traditional education. These days, entrepreneur's can use TurboTax or Quickbooks to handle their accounting needs. The author instead proposes 3 subjects he believes would be useful for today's prospective entrepreneurs: social media, network and relationship building, and developing mentorships. The author elaborates an all of them.

Indeed, part of what we have learned so far is that our educational system has not kept pace with the current marketplace. There are probably many "subjects" which could be taught in school which would serve students better. The blogger's list good starts, and are definitely useful for businesses focusing on information and services. However, what about subjects to promote all TLED?

I would suggest universities and colleges include one mandatory course that at least provides a cursory review of these and other subjects such as sustainable development, green tech, and doing business in a globalized, integrated marketplace. One course is eminently doable for two reasons: 1) Traditional academic inertia at an educational institution might only allow one course rather than a competing discipline; 2) Technology is evolving so quickly that it shirks a concrete academic discipline. The course must co-evolve to track the latest developments.

That students don't understand the new marketplace is evidenced by remarks made by our politicians, our media and our citizenry. William Greider points out this narrow-mindedness: “The obsession with nations in competition misses the point of what is happening: The global economy divides every society into new camps of conflicting economic interests." Students must learn this reality in order to create sustainable, home-grown businesses that are at the cutting edge. It would help if our expensive higher education was at the cutting edge as well.