Transcript 0:00 [on-hold music] Ready yourself for this disruption. Screeners, get ready. 0:10 Recognize that the best and brightest minds might not come from our four-year institution unless our institutions figure this out and partner with corporate America. 0:22 They might come from a trade school or a certification program, or perhaps you might want a slice of this pie and figure out a training program. 0:33 [on-hold music] Welcome to The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation, with your host, Peggy Smedley. 0:55 Hello, listeners, and welcome to today's edition of The Peggy Smedley Show. I'm your host, Peggy Smedley. 1:00 This week on The Peggy Smedley Show, I want to talk about the young and up-and-coming generation, the screeners, as I like to call them. 1:09 This is the generation that is being taught and raised by computers, and I want to spend some time postulating if these screeners have to be self-taught or if their education will have to come from the likes of corporations that offer training since the universities have made it impossible for them, or it is impossible for them to go to school. 1:34 But first, I'll be interviewing Vijay Genappredi, associate professor at the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard. 1:43 And then I'm going to wrap up the show with Brian Turmail, vice president of public affairs and strategic initiatives at AGC. So let's get started. 1:53 First, let's talk about Generation Z or Generation Alpha, as a lot of people call. There's a lot of different names. There's even the Homeland, uh, as they've been called. 2:02 But this generation is currently in school and has come of age during the shelter-in-place crisis. I refer to them as screeners. Now let me tell you why. Just think about it. This is the generation during the pandemic. 2:17 A child has received little or no supervision for several hours as parents tried to go to work, and they are spending an inordinate amount of hours on a screen, such as a phone, a tablet, a computer, whatever. 2:30 On average, this generation receives their first smartphone at the age of ten. A study released in October shows that ninety-eight percent of screeners own a smartphone. 2:43 They control an estimated spending power of a hundred and forty-three billion annually, and they influence an estimated six hundred billion in spending power. And individuals in this generation are digital natives. 2:59 There's no question about that. As they have experienced the internet as a part of their everyday lives, they believe in people. 3:08 Technology can do more to address things such as climate change, social equity, the water crisis, uh, the circular economy. They want-- They, they believe in causes, and this is what I love about this generation. 3:23 In fact, I've written a book that talks about all of that and sustainability and where they want to go forward. So my question is this: How will we educate this generation? 3:35 Between two thousand and seven and two thousand and eight school year and the two thousand and seventeen and the two thousand and eighteen school year, prices for undergraduate tuition, fees, room, and board at public institutions rose thirty-one percent. 3:53 Now, in contrast, private nonprofit schools rose twenty-three percent. This is after the adjustment for inflation. 4:03 So according to the National Center for Education Statistics, as we look at all these numbers, this is just too much since all of our kids aren't being taught with the personal touch of classrooms if we think about what's happening today. 4:18 So this is nothing new when we think about what's been happening in construction because we have been seeing this shortage of qualified workers in the construction pl-- space for a very long time. 4:31 Trade school and on-the-job learning offer very real opportunities for qualified education that is different than the traditional format. 4:41 And it seems some people might be listening because here's another example of an inter-interesting trend that I want to share with you. 4:49 The amount of fall enrollment, post-secondary institutions, was twenty-six percent higher in two thousand and seven than nineteen ninety-seven, showing a sharp increase during that timeframe. 5:02 Conversely, there was only an eight percent increase between twenty seventeen and two thousand and seven. Now, I'm giving you a lot of numbers here, and we're currently experiencing a slowdown in higher education. 5:15 So what are we looking at? We're seeing all of this happen. So what's this telling us? Between two thousand and seven and two thousand and ten, there was still a fifteen percent increase. 5:26 But between two thousand and ten and two thousand and seventeen, there was an actual six percent decrease in fall enrollment. No wonder universities are raising their prices at rates faster than ever before. 5:42 But this is certainly presenting us with an interesting dichotomy. If you look at how our young generations learn today, something isn't going to add up in five to ten years. 5:55 The very genuine reality here is that the traditional education model doesn't fitAnd doesn't add up in the coming, coming screener generation that I'm talking about. So what comes next? That's what we have to look at. 6:13 Simply, this is all leading to what I always say is disruption. Construction is a perfect example of this, and I, I just mentioned that, and here's why. 6:24 There are some interesting examples of how the technology is already disrupting education in our trades. 6:31 Many career and technical education professionals are developing creative methods to teach kind of this hands-on content and skills in remote environments during the pandemic. 6:43 We're seeing the rise of augmented and virtual reality to help students, or this younger generation, visualize and interact with data in a very real way. 6:53 For example, tech company zSpace recently announced the rel-release of career and technical education content that allows students to earn up to 33 industry credentials. 7:07 This includes areas like health science, advanced manufacturing, transportation, and agriscience. 7:15 It also supports 12 out of the 16 federal CTE pathways and is being used in school districts, career centers, and community colleges. 7:27 As another example, VR simulates on-the-job experience for workplace training and skills development. The company just re-received a whopping 12 million in Series A funding to scale training programs. 7:42 Now, I do want to point out that several higher education institutions are also tapping into this technology, and actually, it's about time. 7:51 The University of Louisiana in Monroe, Colorado State University, and Penn State are just a few, and it's about time, so they're being able to learn a skill remotely using AR and VR is certainly an emerging trend to watch, especially as this pandemic just rages on, and we don't see an end right now, and that's what we need to be thinking about. 8:14 But I think there is another potentially bigger disruption coming to education, and I, and I think about it in, in, in this way. 8:24 As we look at all of this, and we heard just recently of Google's career certificate program that was announced recently, and the premise here is students can earn the equivalent to a four-year degree in about six months. 8:41 The course is taught by Google's employees and currently include career fields such as IT support specialist, data analytics, project management, and even user experience design, which I think is awesome if you think about where we're going in technology. 8:58 Google promises to connect students with more than 50 different employers, including the likes of Walmart, Bank of America. 9:07 Just think about those types of companies that you can get a job in, and I think that's powerful. So here's the reality. This seems to be so innovative, but is it or is it not? 9:21 And Google is just repackaging the concept of a trade school concept, so they're thinking smart, outside the box, so to speak. Those who've been around since the 1800s, right? 9:35 But as we all know, when technology companies get their hands on money-making concept, disruption is likely to follow. We've always had to tray... train the trades, and Google's saying, "What are the trades?" 9:51 Well, the trades now are analytics, and Google's saying, "We're gonna be smart and trade or train the trades, but in a different way." What's the new trades? 10:03 We're always gonna have construction-type dro- jobs, but now the new skills are in the computer space. Well, good for them to think outside the box. It's not new, but it's kind of creative. 10:16 If we can't get there and teach them in the schools, what's another way to do it? So here's my opinion for today. 10:23 We're at a crossroads with our education right now, and no doubt we're going to see the rise of screens to educate our youth. Back to my screeners, so maybe I've come up with the new name, and they're the screeners. 10:37 Our youth are going to be... come to expect it. This generation is complaining about needing to get the knowledge. They have so much debt right now. 10:47 Millennials, this demographic, is getting hammered, and they are the most digitally engaged and is likely not going to send their children to expensive higher education institutions. 11:01 Companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft are going to need to offer certifica- certification, certification programs. 11:12 Mark my words, others will follow because we're using screens to educate our children. Silicon Valley is going to disrupt the traditional education model in one way or another, and I see it. So here's my tip for today. 11:30 Ready yourself for this disruption. Screeners, get ready. 11:35 Recognize that the best and brightest minds might not come from our four-year institution unless our institutions figure this out and partner with corporate America. 11:47 They might come from a trade school or a certification program, or perhaps you might want a slice of this pie and figure out a training program. Do you have a way you can contribute to helping 12:01 the younger generation learn? It starts today. And you know what? 12:07 I'm also excited about what's happening, and I'm excited to announce that I have a new book on sustainability because it's going to come out before the holidays if all goes well here, because we have to be sustainable in a circular world, and we have to educate, and we have to be as excited about everything that's happening here. 12:27 And that's what we're talking about, the next generation of education, everybody, businesses, corporations, and whether institutions get online with this, that's what's going to have to happen. 12:38 I hope to have it out before the holidays, and I hope you'll all consider, uh, purchasing this book on Amazon. We'll, we'll let you know as we get closer with it, but we are out of time for this segment. 12:49 I want you to tweet at me at ConnectedWMag and get ready for our next guest. We're gonna take a quick commercial break. As always, tweet at me at ConnectedWMag. 12:58 This is The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation. And remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. We'll be right back after this commercial break. [upbeat music]
