If You Build It, They Will Come : Getting U.S. Vocational Colleges to Deliver 'Job Ready' Graduates for 'Real Jobs' of the 'Real World' (Presentation Slides)

The New Normal is of diminishing Enrollments as well as Placements given fundamental structural changes in job market resulting in “skills gaps.” In the DataDriven Economy where all business and non-business enterprises are digitized, significant jobs are being and will be eliminated because of unprecedented automation and computerization. Simultaneously, given unprecedented focus of all enterprises on automation and computerization using smart technologies, business demand for data-savvy and code-savvy professionals cannot be met. Most entry level jobs requiring a 2-year diploma or 4-year degree are going to be increasingly eliminated because of digitization, automation, and computerization. Simultaneously, all of our stakeholders including students, parents, employers, and, board of trustees; local, state, and federal governments, and, all key providers of funding demand “job-ready” graduates. National surveys on college education such as those from Brookings Institution and Hechinger Report highlight the growing mandate of demonstrating recognizable ‘value added' in terms of graduate salaries aligned with ‘job ready' skills for ‘The New Normal.' To transform the existential Crisis into the greatest Opportunity for rapid evolution to thrive upon, it is proposed that the vocational colleges focus on cultivating a Data Science & Analytics (DSA) MINDSET at all levels