Issue 381 College should be a job finding company July 17, 2014

We know that certain industries need colleges to train their employees.  However, the number of industries that actually need some level of college of education is limited to around 20% of the job market (and that number is being generous). Colleges are losing out to online courses including in areas that requires traditional training that is usually required for one of those jobs that require a college degree.  As such, they are inevitably going to lose money and may even go bankrupt in the long run.  However, colleges need to adapt.  Some and soon all will offer online courses, but even that is not enough.  Hence why they need to become brokers for businesses with respect to finding new hires.

What needs to happen:  Colleges are losing the battle for cheap education.  So they need to offer a service that is not offered by the online institutions.  That is being a job hunting agency.  So the college will market you, groom you and then help place you in a business or corporation.  Some do this to a certain extent based on connections with former Alumni, or small scale partnerships.  But, they need to scale that up and then offer courses that are flexible for the needs of both the students and their business clientele.  

It works as follows.  Essentially, a business would contract with a college and give the college a set of specifications for training they want from a new hire.  The college would then develop the course on demand with the students wanting to work in the particular business or even just that field of study attending.  The business would then have its pick of perspective new hires, and the students have a chance at a good job.  These courses would be more adaptable than the current ones as they would be able to be modified on demand due to the changing nature of the business market.  The results are obvious, businesses, colleges and former college students especially benefit.

Conclusion:  Yes, this is a dream scenario.  However, it is feasible with the right tools and technology.  Of course this would take vast sums of money to even develop such a system in the first place, but it may spell the survival of brick and mortar colleges. So, the question is, is this worth the cost, or will the advancement of technology render colleges completely obsolete.