Originally posted on LinkedIn
➡️ Diagnosis #1️⃣ from my ~70 conversations with education experts: There is a massive gap between what the labor market needs and what higher education produces.
What’s surprising isn’t that there’s a gap — it’s where the gap is. Across the region, technical skills education has expanded rapidly, with models increasingly aligned to what industry needs. In Colombia over the past 15 years we’ve seen the growth of ETDH institutions, the direction of places like FCAEF AREANDINA (thanks to Martha Castellanos, Doctor of Education for receiving me), and recent projects like TEC Uniandes (led by Natalia Ariza Ramírez) and similar initiatives. The system is figuring out how to close the “hard skills” gap, even if it’s moving slower than we’d like (spoiler… that slowness is diagnosis 2️⃣).
The real gap, beyond just the technical, is in the human. In conversations with Henry May and Nicole Bruskewitz from Coschool, it’s clear that 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝑺𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒔 like communication, initiative, leadership, and empathy represent a huge part of that gap. Several recent studies (links in the comments) show that these are the most sought-after skills by employers — not an afterthought. And in Henry’s words, these skills aren’t born, they’re built. How can we build them deliberately, the same way we teach English, coding, or multiplication?
Nicolás Corrales told me about the transformative Acumen program, which is laser-focused on these very skills. Why do we have to wait until our 30s or 40s to access programs like this? Why isn’t it a direct focus during our time in higher education, when employers are clearly asking for it? (◀️ hint at diagnosis 3️⃣)
What do you think? Is higher education responsible for building these skills? Is it doing it well? Maybe there should be a different space for developing them? And if higher education is the right actor… how do you see it creating them?