Antony Pensebene published a post on the Saloon of Literature titled, "Dear Universities, Teach Internet Marketing".
This piece made me think about something I felt passionately about in the past, which is higher education. Higher education is something I strongly believe in when a person feels like it's going to help them achieve a bigger dream or goal in life.
I posted the work Anthony published on Inbound.org, under the community section because I felt like it would be valuable for people to hear what the marketing community has to say about the idea of higher education stepping up to instruct people in contemporary marketing.
One of the commenters in the Inbound.org thread is somebody who was an intern where I was the marketing director. I know he's currently in a good position at a paid search agency and hopefully doing well. When he was in college he worked at what could be considered a full time job, at a tech/ed startup.
His college experience gave him the opportunity to learn the best way, actually doing the work -- working with people of varying skill level and emotional intelligence, but in an environment that was trying to be a 'real' business.
I don't know exactly what he learned there, but I know he had an overall good learning experience, all while he was earning his undergrad totally debt free. Maybe parents and leaders could help kids create a plan to earn a debt-free degree? Or at least get close to debt-free. I know it sounds crazy when we're talking about college, but it makes me sad to see bright and energetic people with raw talent feel held back in life because they are stressed over monthly student loan payments.
Why are colleges trying to produce factory workers in the 21st century?
The article has good thinking. But currently, the traditional college model is still operating in the way that was designed to produce factory workers and white collar workers -- people who stayed with the same company for a lifetime and rode into the sunset of life with a crappy gold watch and a lot of regrets.
I think those days are gone and never coming back. And I believe this because of the way I see young people (Millennials) giving their time to help their communities, to volunteer, and to serve other people. This is a beautiful thing that's happening in our world, so I feel like people who run colleges should start thinking about the people that are trusting them to help light the path to their future.
I'd love to see colleges offer marketing courses, but don't just let irrelevant professors teach them. People like you should be involved with teaching college-level marketing courses. The people actually doing the work, the people whose jobs might be on the line if they don't perform or can't quantify their work, they should help write the curriculum by telling their stories.
Do you have a team of people making the business you started successful? Great, then colleges should let you get involved with educating people if you have the heart to do it. If you have business experience and have learned from failures and successes, the doors of America's universities should be open to you.
I see younger people handling work pressures and performing in ways I never would have been able to when I was their age. It's impressive but it's also a responsibility for those who are actually running colleges (the professors?) to have some empathy towards the weaknesses and the strengths of the generation of people who are trusting them.