Skill FM

The Bay Area goes into lock-down mode to battle the coronavirus, and I survive my first day of homeschooling. Grade? C+ I talk about what worked, what didn't, wonder whether handwriting is a necessary skill or an unnecessary waste of time & blow off a little steam about how difficult it is to watch educational videos using Youtube with young children.

Bryan Caplan is currently a Professor of Economics at George Mason University, a New York Times Bestselling author of books such as The Case Against Education. He and Isaac discuss how he got into economics, his work habits, belief in personal bubbles, and explore three of his research areas.

School is closed due to the Coronavirus...now what?

Penelope Trunk is currently a the world's most influential career counselor according to Inc. Magazine, and the CEO of Quistic. Penelope has founded four companies and joins Isaac to talk about her past and current projects. They talk about writing, unschooling, startup mentality, trends in career development, and how to be honest with yourself when it comes to your future. Her latest startup, Quistic, provides online courses that help people manage their careers.

Chad Grills is currently the CEO of Mission.org, a network of business & tech podcasts designed to accelerate learning. This interview with Isaac from 2015, found Chad working as the curator of the Medium publication, Life Learning. He talks with Isaac about his three core passions: Accelerated learning, Antifragility, and definite optimism.

On today’s HIR(ED) show, a panel discussion called “Agile Education: Are Bootcamps Iterating Fast Enough?”, featuring Will Sentance, CEO & Founder of Codesmith; RC Johnson, Director of Software Engineering for Indeed.com; Amir Savar, Founder of Skilled Inc.; and Joe Burgess, Entrepreneur in Residence at Flatiron School.

Jeremy Walsh is the Vice President of Enterprise Learning Solutions for Wiley Education Services. Jeremy asks whether the future of work is a "war for talent", or something else entirely?

Michael Gibson is a General Partner at 1517 Fund. Michael was pursuing a PhD in philosophy when it struck him that the really big ideas weren't being advanced within the walls of academia. He left, got into the tech world, and found himself running investor Peter Thiel's fellowship program for young college opt-outs. He's recently co-founded his own venture capital fund to support young people who want to work on big ideas outside of the classroom. Isaac and Michael discuss his love of literature and philosophy, how he wound up in Silicon Valley, and what it looks like to operate outside the status quo.

Peter Callstrom is the President and CEO of the San Diego Workforce Partnership (SDWP), the local Workforce Development Board for the City and County of San Diego. In early 2019, SDWP launched the first-of-its-kind Workforce Income Share Agreement (ISA) Fund. Capitalized with over $3M from initial philanthropic donations, the fund pays for post-secondary skills training in priority occupations.

Danielle Strachman is a Partner at 1517 Fund in San Francisco, which focuses on supporting young founders starting companies. 1517 partners with founders in a number of ways: mentorship and community building, kickstart grants of $1,000, and capital partnership through investment.

Zak Slayback was on scholarship at an Ivy League school. Deryk Makgill was on the dean's list at a top tier university. They both dropped out, and they're both glad they did. On today's show, Zak and Deryk join Isaac to discuss their experiences and offer thoughts on the university system and what dissatisfied students can do.

Nick Pinchuk is the Chairman and CEO of Snap-on, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of Columbus McKinnon Corporation, the National Association of Manufacturers, The Manufacturing Institute, the Manufacturer’s Alliance for Productivity and Innovation, and Carthage College. Nick served as the Chair of the Advisory Board for Skills for America’s Future at The Aspen Institute.

Upskilling program graduates from across the country and industries will share their personal experiences, how their program helped them, and what advice they would have for other participants and employers who are considering such programs.

What can civic and education leaders do to create an ecosystem that encourages employer and education partnerships that lead to upskilling programs? How do they ensure these programs develop a skilled workforce within a community that will serve existing employers and attract new ones?

What is driving large employers to invest in new upskilling programs and what types of programs are they investing in? What is working well and what needs to get better? What advice do they have for other companies?

The fifth anniversary of UpSkill America is here! At this special event, UpSkill America, an initiative of The Aspen Institute, looked both back at what they have learned about upskilling the last five years and forward to what the upskilling movement needs to achieve in the years ahead.

Isaac talks with Steve Patterson: Philosopher, Author, and the Host of the podcast Patterson in Pursuit. In his words, Steve is "obsessed with learning and have traveled the world to interview intellectuals about big ideas." On today's show, an excerpt from a longer conversation with Isaac, where he and Steve talk about credentialism and the pro's and con's of using credentials in the world of work.

A summary of this past week, and an announcement about a new special for next week on Skill FM. (Sorry, but you have to listen to this episode if you want to find out what it is!)

Warren and the team at Knowable are building audio courses to help people learn new skills from world leading experts and storytellers. Yes, it's an education podcast featuring an education company that is turning podcasts into audio courses to help educate people...our most meta conversation yet!

On this episode, Liz Eggleston presents "The State of the Bootcamp Industry: Outcomes, Demographics, and Attracting New Students." Liz is the Co-Founder of Course Report, the most complete, most-visited resource for students researching coding bootcamps on the internet.

Isaac talks with Blake Boles: author, entrepreneur, and self-directed learning advocate. Blake is the Director of Unschool Adventures, a program to help unschoolers travel the world, and has written several books on education beyond school. He joins Isaac to discuss his own education and career journey and what he's learned along the way.

A summary of this past week, a new record, and an announcement about our third new show on Skill FM. (Sorry, but you have to listen to this episode if you want to find out which one!)

Is innovation possible in the traditional K-12 system? Today, a conversation with Alec Resnick, the co-founder of Powderhouse Studios in Somerville, Massachusetts. Powderhouse was nearly the first self-directed, public, in-district high school in the country. Over the course of more than five years, the Powderhouse team (with support from a wide variety of community organizations, foundations, experts, and policymakers) worked closely with Somerville Public Schools to develop a detailed, practical, and piloted plan to open a new high school…which was thwarted at the last minute by Somerville’s Superintendent and School Committee.

A special presentation of the Enrollhand Podcast, with Trevor McKendrick, Chief of Staff at Lambda School. Lambda is pioneering a new model of higher education in which the school invests in the students – not the other way around.

Steve Cadigan is a highly sought-after talent advisor who advises a wide range of innovative organizations that include Twitter, Google, GoPro, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and the BBC.

Isaac talks with his (at the time) 10 year old son (pseudonym "NL"), who asked to join Isaac on an episode to talk about his experience as an unschooler. Isaac and NL chat about the pros and cons of unschooling, what a typical day looks like, and whether NL worries about not knowing the things he'll need to succeed.

A summary of our second week back on the air and an announcement about our second new show on Skill FM. (Sorry, but you have to listen to this episode if you want to find out which one!)

Tim Spurlock is the Co-Founder and President of American Diesel Training Centers in Columbus, Ohio. ADTC is a mechanic academy that trains students from any background to become diesel engine mechanics in 12 weeks.

Isaac talks with his friend and former colleague at Praxis, Zak Slayback, currently an investor at 1517 Fund, about his recent and radical views on education, his love for aviation, and where he thinks the next big thing will come from.

A summary of our first week back on the air and an announcement about the first new show on Skill FM. (Spoiler: You have to listen to this episode if you want to find out which one!)

The use of Exclusive or Equitable Selection models to choose applicants for schools or jobs is coming to end. Today, elite institutions, like Y Combinator and The Navy Seals, use Exceptional Selection to choose the best applicants. This new model, selects each individual based on their real world skills, rather than using tests, grades, or group membership in the selection process.

Today, new schools are being created that leverage technology to empower individuals to achieve their unique goals, as quickly, and inexpensively as possible. This is Empowered Education.

Today, the most innovative employers and schools are using new technologies to enable individuals to work and learn what, when, and how they want. This is why work and education are entering a new Age of Individuality.

Introducing Skill FM, the world’s first "podstation", a podcast feed with multiple shows related to today’s innovations in work and education. If you want to be a part of this community moving forward, then Skill FM is the place for you.

Kerry McDonald is the Author of "Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom". She is also a frequent Forbes contributor on education topics, a Senior Education Fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education, and an Adjunct Scholar at the Cato Institute.

Shaan Hathiramani is the founder of Flockjay, an education startup based in Silicon Valley. Flockjay is a sales academy that trains students from any background to become sales reps for tech companies in only 12 weeks.

Josh is the President at Guild Education in Denver. Guild has partnered with WalMart, Chipotle, Disney and more to offer education benefits to over 3 million employees.

Garrett Smiley is the Co-Founder of Sora Schools, an education startup based in Atlanta. Sora is an online, project-based high school where students explore their interests, learn however is best for them, and gain exposure to future careers and fields of work.

Michael is responsible for shaping the higher education advocacy agenda at Third Way, a center-left think tank that the New York Times calls a bunch of “radical centrists”. Michael works to develop and implement policies to ensure that more low- and moderate-income students are earning degrees from quality programs that will equip them to succeed in the 21st century economy. Michael discusses Third Way's recent report, "Higher Ed’s Broken Bridge to the Middle Class".

Sylvain is the Co-Founder of Holberton School, a community driven school offering a two-year program to become a Full Stack Software Engineer using project based and peer learning methodologies. Holberton graduates earn more than similar CS grads from Stanford and MIT, but unlike these colleges, Holberton has no professors or teachers.

Tramane is a recent graduate of Lambda School's Full Stack Web development program. He talks about his challenging life path before getting into Lambda School, and why the opportunity to hone his skills was such a game changer for him and his family. This story is an amazing example of how skill academies are providing a new path to achieve the American Dream.

Rick is the CEO and founder of Skills Fund, which provides students with funding to attend accelerated learning programs that have been rigorously vetted on the quality of their student outcomes. Previously, Rick founded and worked in multiple education technology companies, including the Acton Foundation, College Portfolio, and Fullbridge. Rick also spent time in the public sector, leading the Colorado Department of Higher Education. Rick talks about the challenges that we face in reforming higher ed, the history and future of accelerated learning programs, and the unsettled debate about whether loans or ISAs are better for students.

Isaac Morehouse is the CEO of Crash, the career launch platform, and the founder of Praxis, a startup apprenticeship program. Isaac has written 8 books about work and education, including "Don't Do Stuff You Hate" and "The Future of School: Reimagining Higher Education for the Next Generation". When he’s not with his wife and kids or building his company, he can be found smoking cigars, playing guitars, reading, writing, and watching sports teams from his home state of Michigan.

Kim Taylor is the Founder and CEO of Cluster, a venture-backed marketplace that matches engineers to jobs and training in the industrial sector. Initially, Kim was trying to understand how the "skills gap" was impacting industrial America. But when she found a SpaceX engineer who couldn't switch careers, she realized something was wrong with this theory. Kim tells us how her 2nd venture backed company, Cluster, is solving the real problems facing industrial tech talent in America, today.

Today, I'm trying something new, a "Community Update" with Friend of the Show, Chuck Trafton, President of edly - The ISA Marketplace.

Worldwide, more than 75 million young people are unemployed, despite the fact that many employers can’t find people with the skills they need for entry-level jobs. Today, we learn how Mona Mourshed and her team at Generation help youth (and recently, older, displaced workers) to gain these skills in countries from Kenya, to Brazil, to the United States.

Every year, nearly 250,000 Americans from every town, and every walk of life, enter the workforce. They excel at teamwork, project completion, and soft skills. Today, we learn how Mike Slagh and his team help these amazing U.S. veterans shift to new careers, and in turn, better understand how any American can shift careers themselves.

We talk a lot about skills today, but this actually is a recent phenomenon. My guest, Jamai Blivin, describes the history of how her non-profit, Innovate + Educate, coined and popularized skills-based hiring across the country, and lays out a vision for how higher ed can adapt to the new world of skills.

If you believe that colleges require more "skin in the game" to improve student outcomes, there is only one place to look: student loans. My guest, Carlo Salerno, makes the case for mandating that colleges share financial risk with their students.

Yes, Income Share Agreements are innovations in educational financing. But, they may also be our best tool for helping untapped student groups access educational opportunities. Have we buried the lede when talking about ISAs?

The profit motive has led to so many innovations in higher education. So, why are we uncomfortable talking about it?