Utah is fortunate to be served by a number of capable think tanks/policy institutes. Periodically, UtahPolicy.com will pose a question to them on important and timely policy issues. Here’s the first installment with responses from The Gardner Policy Institute, Utah Foundation, Envision Utah and The Sutherland Institute.
This Week’s Question: As a result of the twin crises of COVID-19 and its economic damage to Utah, what changes will occur, or should occur, or what trends will be accelerated in preparing workers for the jobs and professions of the future?
Peter Reichard, president, Utah Foundation
Prior to 2020, technology was already enabling a steady movement toward tele-education. That trend has suddenly, rapidly accelerated. Even as the current crisis ebbs, tele-education will remain with a stronger foothold than ever before. Meanwhile – despite the current economic challenges – many quality jobs remain unfilled due to a lack of qualified employees in fields from construction to engineering.
The move to tele-education holds promise and peril. At the K-12 level, there is the potential for new frontiers in educational choice, allowing families to better tailor curricula to their children’s unique needs and interests. At the post-secondary level, there is the potential for tele-education to open a wider variety of educational opportunities to a wider audience at a lower
cost, boosting access and educational attainment. We may even find ways through tele-education to adapt offerings to fill high-demand jobs, which would serve both students and employers well.
On the other hand, there is the peril that, due to different ways of learning or different levels of access to technology and broadband, some people will be left behind. There may be the temptation to use tele-education where a hands-on approach is needed. We should take advantage of the great experiment in tele-education now underway to determine what works and what doesn’t, and for whom. We should also identify and close gaps in technology access, both geographically and economically. More broadly, we should nurture and improve upon efforts to boost educational attainment, particularly among low-income and first-generation college students, as well as adult learners.
Read the other think tanks’ and policy institutes’ responses in the full article.
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