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If young adults need a college education so badly, why are recent college grads so disproportionately unemployed? Experts tell us that two-thirds of jobs in the US by 2020 will require post-secondary credentials of some sort. Ironically, the pace of change is such that identifying the jobs that will come available in five years is hard to predict, creating questions ab...
Digital skills open doors to jobs in tech, media, and across all industries. Connecting diverse students and workers with the education and training needed for the 92% of today’s jobs that require digital skills creates a pipeline of talent, critical to driving economic opportunity and mobility.
Schools of nursing, medicine, and public health are attracting applicants in record numbers and admiration for these professionals has never been higher. At the same time, many workers—burned out, burdened by debt, and facing mental health challenges—are fleeing the field. Given the appeal, the stress, and the vital nature of healthcare jobs, we need to understand how best...
America has always meant business. We’re a nation of self-starters, strivers, and entrepreneurs — with the courage to take big risks and the confidence to determine our own destiny. Entrepreneurs are seen as the beating heart of our economy, generating the jobs, wealth, and innovation that keep the American Dream alive. But what are the conditions that small businesses nee...
How can we prepare needed talent to fuel economic growth and social mobility? With the workplace rapidly changing with advances in artificial intelligence, do we even know enough about future jobs to prepare young people with the right skills and capacities? Are our education systems prepared in light of rapid demographic shifts? Leaders in industry and academia have some...
Entrepreneurs view the world differently. Where others see challenges, they see opportunities. In an age of globalization and hyperconnectivity, a new class of visionaries is tackling the world’s challenges through disruptive innovation. In a conversation with the Aspen Institute’s Peggy Clark, Care.com founder, chairwoman, and CEO Sheila Lirio Marcelo shares how her exper...
Over the past decade, Walter Isaacson has explored the minds of history’s most curious innovators. Leonardo da Vinci. Benjamin Franklin. Albert Einstein. Steve Jobs. Jennifer Doudna. And now: Elon Musk. All geniuses, to be sure. What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? What led to their...
Is America turning its back on the humanities? The evidence seems real when we see declining enrollments in the studies of arts, history, literature, language, and philosophy at colleges and universities across the country. Declining enrollments preface limited budgets for broad areas of inquiry as the promise of STEM curricula woos students to jobs and career paths. I...
Escalating costs of higher education are driving some colleges and universities to rethink their business models. Demographic changes are reshaping student populations. Job pressures for newly minted college graduates are fierce, challenging curriculum and budgets. And politicians are wringing their hands as other countries are improving education outcomes more quickly...
So many kids these days can be outspoken and inspiring, with world-changing ideas they’re ready to put into action. But in truth, we’ve not been great to the youth of today, leaving many of the most vulnerable behind and leaving the majority ill-prepared for the travails that are coming their way. Though it’s tempting to leave them the job of building the future, we first...
Millennials shoulder a lot of stereotypes.
Achieving shared prosperity requires internal and external investments in both skills development and the tools that enable financial mobility. Corporations are recognizing and prioritizing these investments to empower a multi-generational workforce better suited for the future. Panelists will examine the complexities that corporate leaders are facing like how to establish...
David Skorton became the 13th secretary of the Smithsonian Institution on July 1, 2015. A board-certified cardiologist who previously served as president of Cornell University, Skorton entered the institution at a time of transition and renovation, with new museums like the National Museum of African American History and Culture slated to open soon and major overhauls on o...
Roughly one in four students choose business as their undergraduate major in the US, making business the most popular academic pursuit. While business majors excel in the post-graduation job market, some studies suggest humanities majors actually fare better over the course of their careers. How do we retain the liberal arts in the face of demand for business credentials?...
US higher education is challenged by several dynamic forces: Americans are less likely than in the past to attend college, but those who do are more diverse. Costs and debt are rising — as is mistrust of higher education. And the skills needed to succeed in the workforce are evolving rapidly as technology advances. Can the nation’s 4,000 colleges and universities succeed b...
Americans now owe a staggering $1.5 trillion in student loan debt, according to Forbes. With growing online opportunities catered to self-taught learners and the ever-evolving digital nature of work in the modern world, do we still need to sit in classrooms to get a college education? Are companies and government institutions rethinking the long-standing requirement of a f...
In this new Aspen Ideas format, all attendees gather each morning to kick off the day by exploring a current issue of deep complexity. Debates over the content of our historical narrative and cultural values have Americans of differing ideologies engaged in heated battle, with educators and students caught in between. Meanwhile, have we failed to meaningfully educate o...
Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist and Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy. Ahead of Aspen Ideas: Climate next week, we caught up with Dr. Hayhoe to discuss tips for talking about climate change with anyone, how her faith informs her climate activism, why environmental guilt-tripping never works, and how to develop real, muscular hope.