STEM Education: Early Career Exploration
The idea
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Ted Talk
This journey started with a Ted Talk which explored the existing education system by looking at the underlying economic reasons for its current structure. The current structure is entirely rational under the circumstance where instructor and instruction space are scarce resources. However, virtualization highly disrupts this model, and indeed a massive secular trend towards on-demand online education is occurring in the marketplace. Covid-19 has significantly accelerated this trend.
Beyond the core education delivery, two problems plague the education system -- early career discovery and teaching “soft” skills. Is there a way to bring the wisdom of the professional ranks to students (and most adults)? Is there a way of managing this process such that the student has real context on the structure of the economy? Is there a way of doing this such that it is not just boring statistics? This was the basis of the SAMWISE and GANDALF projects.
The next step
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Samwise Mockup
The SAMWISE Project attempts to solve the “early career discovery” problem by the use of four methods:
Engaging Human Centered Format: The information about jobs is presented to the student by people who actually do the job. This is done in the form of initial “day-in-the-life” videos built around a social networking site structure. Beyond the video, there are options for students to connect to professionals for further conversions under the context of career discovery.
Economic Map: To make progress on any journey, one must understand the context and this is best captured in a map structure. What is a map in the context of career discovery? An economist's view of the job with major sectors, minor sectors, org charts, and finally a particular job (tied into #1). Connected with this context is also information on job growth/salary as well as the broad secular trends in the industry.
Gamification: Overlaid to this basic functionality is a gamification platform that encourages engagement through a broad set of career pathways.
Launch
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Based on these ideas, a company called nextgenedu.net was launched in 2018. Initial funding was provided by the institute and an engineering team has been formed to build a minimal viable product (MVP) for SAMWISE. SAMWISE software sources information from Bureau of Labor Statistics, wall street industry reports, and job search sites. The initial business model embeds SAMWISE functionality inside the website of universities with the connection network being their alumni network. There are three clear value points:
Admissions: Through SAMWISE, the alumni videos provide a clear view to potential students of pathways for their future and these are connected to university degree programs. This visibility can provide differentiation for universities for recruiting and most importantly for converting admitted students to enrollees.
Provost: Student completion time and dropouts are two of the key metrics for academic affairs at any university. Both are connected to the student’s choice of degree programs and this choice can be significantly aided by SAMWISE.
Alumni Relations: Today, the primary engagement between universities and alumni is fund raising through their development organization. With SAMWISE, this organization has a tool to engage with alumni in a meaningful way and this increase in more connective tissue is helpful.
SAMWISE is entering the pilot engagement phase with some major universities.