ExGen: Experiential Learning for the Next Generation Workplace

The Problem:

Students do not get authentic industry experience or field work until college and have to choose a major that they have little knowledge of sophomore year. This leads to many graduates who do not end up in the fields they studied and a huge amount of wasted money

• In 2013 only 27% of college graduates had jobs related to their major (Plumer, 2013)
• The average student loan debt for Class of 2017 graduates was $39,400, up six percent from the previous year.

Educators are not aware of how industry today operates and how the concepts and skill of their discipline are utilized

• 42 educators were asked if they have spent 5 or more days in any industry other than education as an employee since being in the classroom and 100% of them said no.
• Of the same 42 educators surveyed above 19 of them felt disconnected and/or unaware of the workplace today especially if it was a technology driven field.

The Solution:

VISION

Transform the current education classroom so that it prepares students for the workplace and careers of tomorrow.

MISSION

Prepare educators around the world to excel in creating, implementing, and evaluating experiential learning opportunities that bring real world and contextualized learning into classrooms and result in inspired students that succeed in the next generation workforce.

COMPREHENSIVE THREE BRANCH APPROACH

ExGen Educators:

RATIONALE:

An intentional personalized professional development experience that immerses educators in today's industry will produce inspired ecuators who deeply grasp experiential learning and will in turn provide high quality problem based experiential learning opportunities for students.

ExGen Partners:

PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION WORKPLACE

RATIONALE:

Teams of teachers, industry experts, students and higher education faculty to work together to enhance K-12 curriculum to bring real world and contextualized learning into classrooms. This intensive professional development experience should result in more student centered teaching practices and the resulting curriculum has the potential to positively impact student learning. The teachers learn about real world discipline applications in the workforce and deepen their understanding of authentic application of 21st century skills, and higher education and industry partners learn about K-12 education, have an opportunity to invest in the K-12 education pipeline and increase student interest in pursuing careers within their industry/field.

ExGen Online:

COMMUNITY FOR THE NEXT GENERATION WORKPLACE

RATIONALE:

Establish and continually develop an online space that is used by experiential educators worldwide as a resource for idea sharing, professional development opportunities and a community of practice. By harnessing the power of the internet we will be able to bring ExGen to communities and individuals who may not be physicaaly able to attend due to geographic, time, or financial constraints. This will increase our impact and help to transform more classrooms across the world.

REFERENCES:

Dintersmith, T. (Getting Smart). (2018, Feb. 20). Advocating for next gen education [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from http://www.gettingsmart.com/2018/02/ted-dintersmith-powerful-learning/

Plumer, B. (2013, May 20). Only 27 percent of college grads have a job related to their major. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/05/20/only-27-percent-of-collegegrads-have-a-job-related-to-their-major/?utm_term=.c1631e645410

Raimondo, G. (2018). K-12 education. Retrieved from https://ginaraimondo.com/issues/k-12-education/

Student Loan Hero (2018, May 1). A look at the shocking student loan debt statistics for 2018. Retrieved from https://studentloanhero.com/student-loan-debt-statistics

US Department of Education. Progress in our schools. Retrieved from https://www.ed.gov/k-12reforms