HP Innovation Journal Issue 12: Summer 2019 | Page 50

PERPETUAL EDUCATION
Q&A WITH AIMS MCGUINNESS
Senior Fellow, National Center For Higher Education
Management Systems (NCHEMS)
“What is happening in the world
is that people are not diagnosing the
major disparities and, consequently,
the proportion of the population
that is highly mobile and well-educated
is not growing.”
Why is creating successful perpetual
education systems so important?
The number of people who enter the workforce for one
particular job today is very limited. The employment scene
is such that, increasingly, you’re going to be moving to
people being individual contractors, switching to multiple
employers as they’re merged, consolidated, and integrated.
Unfortunately, this complexity is now leading to the fact
that only a small percentage of students going through sec-
ondary education or entering college are going to have basic
tools to be able to deal with this. What is happening in the
world is that people are not diagnosing the major disparities
and, consequently, the proportion of the population that
is highly mobile and well-educated is not growing. What is
really growing is the severely undereducated population.
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HP Innovation Journal Issue 12
What does it take to create
a successful perpetual
education system?
The first part of the recipe is to begin with data to
identify the learning gaps in the education of the
population. The second thing is to really understand,
given the changing economy of a given area, what
kinds of knowledge and skills are needed. The third
thing is to create a highly responsive connection
between the necessary educational content, which can
come from providers anywhere in the world, and the
individuals who need it.