HP Innovation Journal Issue 12: Summer 2019 | Page 52

Q & A W I T H A I M S M CG U I N N E S S
“What we really need are nodes
of redesigned community colleges,
which are essentially regionally
distributed, in order to make it possible
for employers to function in the area
and then have a constantly retrained
and developed workforce.”
How will the U.S. education system
have to change to become capable
of reskilling workers?
The real issue is whether the companies are going to have
to undertake it or whether the education system itself can
respond enough to be able to provide that capability. My
experience—which is primarily in the public sector with
community colleges and four-year institutions—is that
their ability to participate in that reskilling activity on a
scale of one to ten is about a point-one. They’re so tangled
in the complexities of their own structures, and particu-
larly collective bargaining agreements, that there’s simply
an inability to respond. So I think you’ll find a whole set of
other education providers who are able to work along with
the private sector to be able to provide that reskilling. It
may be an entrepreneurial activity that some institutions
can respond to, but boy, they are really slow.
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HP Innovation Journal Issue 12
Has the disruption of education
already started?
The California community colleges are shifting much
more to a competency approach where you really have an
understanding with both the changing employment sector
and the education providers about a set of competencies
that people need, then find and match that with a much
more entrepreneurial set of providers who are aimed at
gaining those competencies. Something like the Western
Governors University is really going to be a model of a
much more decentralized entrepreneurial set of providers
who are able to provide those services.