Michael Edmondson (New Jersey Institute of Technology) on Industry Alignment and Workforce Preparedness in Higher Ed

On today’s episode of the Illumination by Modern Campus podcast, podcast host Shauna Cox was joined by Michael Edmondson to discuss the significance of aligning with industry needs and trends, while tailoring learning models to suit your students. 

Transcript

Voicerover: Welcome to Illumination by Modern Campus, the leading podcast focused on transformation and change in the higher education space. On today’s episode, we speak with Michael Edmondson, who is Associate Provost for Continued Learning at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Michael and podcast host Shauna Cox discuss the significance of aligning with industry needs and trends, while tailoring learning models to suit your students. 
Shauna Cox (00:02):Michael, welcome to the Illumination podcast. I'm so glad that you could chat with me today.

Michael Edmondson (00:06):Thank you, Sean. I really appreciate the invitation.

Shauna Cox (00:09):Yeah, absolutely. Now we're here to talk about higher ed's need to adapt in order to align themselves a lot more closely with industry trends and the needs to really better prepare students. So I want to kick off our conversation first with how have you personally seen higher ed adapt or evolve in recent years to work more closely with industry?

Michael Edmondson (00:30):Sure, thanks. And it's a great question. Parts of higher ed have not adopted, right? I mean, right now in 2024, I think the number is one school per week is closing, and it's really quite sad what's happening for the schools that are adapting to, it's generally defined as a VUCA world volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. It's a very common phrase defined by the military in the eighties to discuss the Cold War re-energized in the mainstream during the 2008 financial crisis. And it's really never left the nomenclature. So in today's VUCA world, those higher education institutions that are trying to adopt and stay relevant, vital and vibrant, they're the three things that you try to be as a nonprofit organization. They're making connections with industries, and that happens in a number of different ways. I mean, the three most common ways are they connect their graduates for jobs, they connect their students for internships, and if it's an R one institution, like the New Jersey Institute of Technology, they try to partner with corporations for research. So, long story short, some are not doing it and some are doing it. And I think the way of the future is trying to connect more strongly with industry partners, partner.

Shauna Cox (01:56):Absolutely. And I think it's not something that can be done overnight or in three clicks, things like that. So what are some of the challenges to preparing students for the workforce, especially in today's environment?

Michael Edmondson (02:11):Yeah, so there's so many challenges. I mean, our children are older, they've graduated college, they have good jobs. So a little bit removed from that personally, but I still teach and I teach oral presentation at NJIT. And what I have found with the college age generation, really, there are three trends that I see up close and personal. One is a great concern about will I be ready for the workforce, right? They're looking for an internship, they're looking for experiential education. They understand that's what employers are looking for. And so NJIT has recommitted itself to making sure that they got some kind of experiential education. That's critical. Second thing is they're greatly concerned about the role of AI as everyone is. Imagine being 18, 20, 22, 23, 24. You're either in college or you've just graduated and you're like, wait, this ai, is this going to take my job? So the new frontier of work, which is really fascinating, and we could be here for days talking about it, but the new frontier of work is the human's relationship with technology.

(03:28):So I think that college graduates need to figure out, okay, it's not that the AI is going to replace me, it's just that I need to make sure I can leverage all technology so that I am not replaced. So there's an understanding of I have to figure this out that other generations really haven't had to figure out. And then the third thing is look, which is related to the second, the ability to be human has never been more promising in the world of technology. So they have to figure out how to have conversations with strangers. They have to be able to hold a room's attention with the presentation. Still, if you look at any study, what's the number one soft skill that everyone's looking for? Communication, communication, oral, written, email, you name it. And so in my oral presentation class, every student speaks in front of everybody in every class. And what I tell them is 80% of speaking is listening. So they have to become better listeners in order to become better speakers. So they're kind of like the three trends. And then if nothing makes sense, please let me know.

Shauna Cox (04:41):No, absolutely. Everything certainly makes sense. And especially when it comes to things like communication, it's still having that strong foundation of skills that quite frankly are never going to go away. And students need to keep up with those. And of course, you're sprinkling in things like AI just to stay up to date with everything. Which leads into the next question of what are some of those strategies or things that higher ed institutions need to consider when they're trying to stay up to date, especially in a landscape that is hyper competitive?

Michael Edmondson (05:17):Yeah, I love that word, hyper competitive. Thanks for using it. So what a lot of schools have done, some have been doing it for decades, decade or two, and others are just catching on. But what higher education institutions can do to remain relevant and vital and vibrant is to focus their attention and investments into the field of the non-degree credentials, non-credit skills-based learning, workforce development, custom training. These are professional education. These are fields that are extremely relevant. And as I often say, there's no shortage of learners today, but there is, however, a shortage of people going to college. I don't have to tell you or your listeners that the trend of people going to college and graduating college is downward. And I mean, I just saw a forecast from until 2031. I mean, I thought it was a kind forecast. It had college level enrollment leveling off.

(06:17):I mean, I think a lot of people would suggest it's still on a downward trend in seven years. But what's not on a downward trend, what's actually the inverse of that? An upward trend are the number of people getting credentials. microcredentials certificate programs engaged in non-credit learning, because people want an education. They want to be trained, they want to learn. They don't necessarily need a degree. So I think the colleges of the future, except for the select few that have billion dollar endowments, don't have to worry about much. Right? But the colleges that are in the mainstream, they're going to survive in the future, will focus in on the non-degree credentials. And that's why NJIT and its wholly owned nonprofit subsidiary, the New Jersey Innovation Institute under my leadership a couple months ago, launched the Learning and Development Initiative, the LDI and the LDI leverages both the NJIT and NJI ecosystems to create and support skills-based learning in the non-degree credential field, as well as custom training and workforce development. So we have a lot of exciting things going on, and it's important for people to understand that in this world of hyper competitiveness, as you correctly pointed out, you got to figure out how to create a value proposition so that you stand out from the crowd. And I think the LDI can help do that with NJIT and NJII working together.

Shauna Cox (07:47):Absolutely. So let's talk about that a little bit more. So how is your institution preparing the modern learner for today's workforce, and how did this initiative kind of come about?

Michael Edmondson (07:59):So I was hired in August of last year as the associate Provost for continued learning, and quickly realized that, oh, they really need a vision for this and a long-term six year plan. And my hiring was fortuitous because NJIT was in the middle, maybe three quarters of the way through a new strategic planning process. So it is a very collaborative environment. And our provost, Dr. John Lesco, and I flushed out this vision. And then Michael Johnson, the president of the New Jersey Innovation Institute started in October, and then with the three of us kind of worked together. And if you take a look at the NJIT strategic plan for 2030, it's available publicly now called the Innovation Nexus. The Learning and Development Initiative is actually on the map. NJIT has recognized the importance of the non-degree credential marketplace. And thanks to John and Michael's support, the LDI is able to really branch out and do some things to help the institutions get caught up to speed in a world that's constantly changing.

(09:16):So we are launching custom training working with corporations. We launched a webinar a couple of weeks ago about AI and the need to travel outside your comfort zone. So we're doing a lot of things in the non-degree credential space. Technically, I guess the brand is two months old. We had to officially brand it, and we did that because as you said, it is so competitive out there. And we're leveraging both the New Jersey Institute technology and the New Jersey Innovation Institute. So by leveraging both ecosystems, we have a lot of capabilities that we can help people with. At NJI, for example, we have a healthcare division, we have a defense division, we have an entrepreneurship division. So those divisions, they're not academic based, but NJIT has an engineering school, architectural and design, commuting college and science and liberal arts. So we actually marry the best of both worlds, the nonprofit world and the higher education world. So there's a lot going on with that to help spur non-degree credential training in New Jersey and in the region.

Shauna Cox (10:32):And I love the collaborative approach that you guys have taken because I think collaboration is key, because while this might be a hyper competitive environment, I still don't think that everybody's out to get everybody. You're all here to serve one mission to serve the students. And so taking a collaborative approach and leveraging the skills that you have that they might not, and vice versa, I think is really key to really preparing that modern student for the workforce. So what kind of impact does this more innovative approach to non-credit and skills-based learning have on that student experience?

Michael Edmondson (11:12):So I think it allows the student experience to unfold in the way that's a little bit different. And what I mean by that, so the modern learner grew up in the Covid era, and especially those that were in elementary school, high school, even college during covid, they missed a year of learning. And that unfinished learning, that incomplete learning, however you want to label it, the residue of that is still out there. And one of the fascinating conversations I have with my students is that they don't want to take a course online, especially the undergraduates. The undergraduates want to be in person because I think they grew up, they missed a whole year of human contact or maybe even longer, a year and a half, whatever the case was. And a lot of my students honestly told me, Dr. Edmondson, I did so poorly when everything was on Zoom.

(12:16):I need to be in a classroom talking to a professor. And I really appreciated that. So what we're trying to do is take that learning and figure out, okay, we obviously want to have some training online, but we also want to do some training in person. I think the mindset, Shauna, for some is like, okay, all learning needs to go online. And while that is true for some populations, that is not true for all populations. So we're trying to figure out the right balance between doing something in person where we can have that interaction, one-on-one or small group, whatever the case is. And then doing webinars with 50, 60 people and me talking into a screen. It took me a while to get used to that. I mean, I have one tomorrow that I'm doing internally. If I had my druthers, I would do all my presentations in person, but I know that's not realistic.

(13:13):So I think with the modern learner, I think any training or educational entity needs to figure out the right balance between what should be done in person and what should be done online. I don't think it's an either or. I think it's an end. And figuring out that balance is going to be critical. And even when we do corporate training, the best corporate training, custom training is generally in person. Now, if it's a corporation that has people around the world, obviously virtual has to do, but when I've done it, I really cherish having a group of whatever it is, 40, 50, 60 people in a room, and you're just, they're raising hands and they're very engaged. It's a little bit harder to do that, right? Via Zoom, someone has to be a traffic cop, okay? There's six comments in the chat. People raise their hands with the icon, so it gets a little bit more inefficient, I call it, as opposed to me just up there talking to people.

(14:15):I see hands. I say, all right, red shirt, you're next, green shirt, blue dress, that's the order. Let's go. And you can't do that, right? It interrupts the flow. So as just an observation for any training and education institution, you only got to figure out that right balance between in-person and online. And again, I just, I'll leave. I'll say it one more time just to reiterate, but the first time I heard it, I kind of felt joyful. I'm old, old school, so I only went to school in person. You had No, back in my day. Oh, goodness. I'm so old now. Back in my day, Shauna, we didn't have the internet. We didn't have cell phones, we didn't have Zoom. So everything was online, everything was in person. And now I teach some classes for other schools that I have in the past that are just completely online. And when you do it in person, you realize, wow, what a difference. And the students know it, right? Don't discount the intelligence of the students. They know they want to be in person, and the honest ones will tell you that. I hope, did I answer that question? I don't know if I did. Hopefully I did.

Shauna Cox (15:27):Absolutely. I think what it comes down to is understanding your audience and who they are. As you mentioned, it may not work for a specific institution and the things that you're doing, but I think the common element or the common theme here is understanding your audience, getting that feedback and catering to the needs that they have, which I think is so important to serving that student experience. So you absolutely answered the question. Great.

Michael Edmondson (15:57):Okay, good.

Shauna Cox (15:59):That's all the questions that we have for you. But before I let you go, we're going to get a restaurant recommendation from you. Now, we talked about this before we started recording. You are from Philly. You are Philly, Phil Philly, born and raised. So we're going to go with Philadelphia here. So if anyone's in Philly, where do they need to go?

Michael Edmondson (16:23):Well, you have to go to the writing terminal market, and if you're visiting Philly, or obviously if you're from Philly, you know where it is, right by the convention center in Center City, they have dozens of eateries. There's a great French crate place. You can get ice cream, you can get Middle Eastern food, you can get Italian food, and you can get fresh fish, you can get sandwiches, and most importantly, you got to stop by Fourth Street cookies and get the best cookie in the whole world. They're always warm, and they have not just chocolate chip, but in my mind, that's the only type of cookie. But some people like peanut butter cookies, they like oatmeal cookies. That's fine. They have all those. So yeah, wonderful place to shop around and entertain your palate through a number of different eateries.

Shauna Cox (17:11):Absolutely. That's amazing. What I'm hearing from this is that I can have breakfast, lunch, and dinner in one

Michael Edmondson (17:17):Spot. A hundred percent. Oh, a hundred percent. You can stay there all day. Places where you can sit, bring your computer, have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you'll reset. Shauna,

Shauna Cox (17:32):

Love it. Awesome. Well, Michael, thank you again for joining me. It was so great having you.

Michael Edmondson (17:36):

Thank you, Shauna. Really appreciate the invite. Have a great day.