Workday Podcast: Higher Education and the Future of Skills Development After COVID-19

How will a wounded economy change expectations around upskilling or new skills development? And how will those changing expectations affect higher education? Our two guests on the Workday Podcast share their insights into the impact of COVID-19 on colleges and universities.

Higher education is being stress tested in a way we’ve never seen. How will a wounded economy and large numbers of job seekers change expectations around upskilling or new skills development? And how will those changing expectations, in turn, impact higher education? 

In this episode of the Workday Podcast, guests Sean Gallagher, executive director of the Center for the Future of Higher Education and Talent Strategy, and executive professor of educational policy at Northeastern University, and Joellen Shendy, product strategy director, Workday Student, make it their business to think about the future of higher ed. They share their insights with us on the short- and long-term impacts of COVID-19.

Listen on SoundCloud: Higher Ed and the Future of Skills Development After COVID-19

Listen on Apple Podcasts: Higher Ed and the Future of Skills Development After COVID-19

 

Below you’ll find a few highlights from the conversation, edited for clarity. You can find our other Workday Podcasts here.

  • “I would revisit all of your assumptions, and gather as much data and evidence as you can to plan better and to make new forecasts. So much is changing so rapidly. This doesn't mean it has to be a new strategic plan or vision or a giant consulting project. But get a team, an interdisciplinary team across functions, monitoring what's happening, talking to your partners and your students.” —Sean Gallagher

  • “There's a very big difference between moving things online—facilitating Zoom meetings or recording lectures—and developing and delivering a rich, robust online learning experience. I think that institutions will now start to make some choices, if they did not before, to put some allocation of resources towards crafting and curating high-quality online experiences.” —Joellen Shendy

  • “The clear historical pattern, in decades and centuries past, is that after layoffs companies have tended to replace some of that labor with technology, and the actual jobs for people don't come back. Yet at the same time, we know that everything that lives in the cloud, or can be done online, is growing. So, there are going to be job opportunities that open up.”  —Sean Gallagher

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