Freelancers and online education can help California with looming workforce crisis, expert says

The U.S. is near the bottom in developed countries in earning degrees, but the explosion in options and quality of self-directed distance learning and skills training can help the country regain its footing, a California tech sector booster told North Bay professionals.|

As college cost continue to grow, unemployment is shrinking, and one expert says the future workforce is moving toward saving money through online courses and choosing flexibility by working freelance rather than taking full or part-time jobs.

'Today a high school-age person living in a remote area of Northern California can go online and take a computer programming code course (for as low as $29 or under $99 in most cases), compared to the cost of $40,000 for a year in residency at one of our top universities, and also use the web to get crowdfunding – all this without ever stepping foot in Silicon Valley,' said Matt Gardner, CEO of the California Technology Council.

'It is also a way to tap into what local populations are capable of when it comes to being a source of fresh ideas, innovation, and creative candidate talent for employers. It's a new model for education, growth and employment that challenges conventional thinking without having to be physically located in major city or large financial center.'

Gardner said freelancing could pass traditional employment within 10 years.

Upwork and Freelancers Union reported in October that the fifth annual Freelancing in America 2018 study that an estimated 56.7 million Americans freelanced, up by 3.7 million in the past five years.

In December 2018, the civilian labor force in the U.S. totaled 163.24 million, according to Statista, the statistics portal, meaning that freelancers now represent almost 35 percent of the workforce.

The Freelancing in America study also reported that technology is making it easier to find work (64 percent of freelancers found work online, a 22-point increase since 2014). Respondents said freelancing gives them the flexibility they desire and the lifestyle that matters most to them. Some 51 percent of all freelancers say no amount of money would get them to take a traditional job.

'The biggest challenge when it comes to transforming education is overcoming the degree barrier still desired by most employers. With today's labor shortage, rather than only focusing on degrees, look at those with the skill sets you want and need, not just the traditional learning path,' Gardner said.

Ninety-three percent of freelancers polled with a four-year college degree find their college education less valuable than skills training for the work they do, compared with only 79 percent who said their college education was useful in their current jobs. Some 70 percent of full-time freelancers said they participated in skills training during the prior six months, compared to only 49 percent of full-time non-freelancers.

'It's time we started re-assessing the possible with a theory of change based on new realities that could provide the poorest child in the poorest community with a technical career in science and technology," Garnder said, speaking at the 36th annual Solano Economic Development Corporation meeting in Fairfield on Jan. 30. "This can be achieved through self-directed distance learning and skills training using open-source course ware obtained using existing funding streams and existing infrastructure.'

The administrator of the industrial development group said the U.S. high school student dropout rate demonstrates the need for a new way to look at how tomorrow's workers can be trained. The average U.S. dropout rate is about 16 percent today.

Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the U.S. — that's one student every 26 seconds or 7,000 a day — without receiving a diploma or an equivalency credential, such as a GED, according to DoSomething.org. The group notes that the U.S. now ranks 22nd of 27 developed countries in terms of its graduation rates.

He also displayed a chart depicting the percentage of U.S. population with bachelor's degrees showing only 33 percent of those ages 25-34 having such degrees and 34 percent of those ages 25-64 in 2010, as reported by NSF Science and Engineering Indicators.

Three years later, degree-attainment rates in the developed world showed major gains for nations such as Korea with 65 percent of those ages 24-34 with college degrees, Japan 59 percent and Canada 57 percent, with the U.S. only rising to 44 percent, according to OECD Education at a Glance.

Gardner said a changing paradigm involves re-thinking how we learn, including the unlimited participation and open access on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) via the web. He cited other resources such as edX, HarvardX and Coursera, in addition to Edemy and Great Courses Plus, etc., offering online learning courseware.

He said in just two years, Coursera — for example — grew from a revolutionary idea to a thriving educational access community of more than 107 partner institutions, including students from 190 countries taking 532 courses across a diverse range of disciplines taught by 731 instructors.

A MOOC survey said only 10 percent of schools and colleges polled had no plans to offer any type of online courses, while 76 percent offer them today and another 16 percent plan to do so within two years. The same poll found that 84 percent of respondents believe MOOC courses complement residential education, while only 16 percent said such courses compete.

The top 10 countries in order of online course user percentages include the U.S., with 31.7 percent, followed by India with 8.4; UK with 4.3; Brazil 3.8; Canada, 2.9; Spain 3.1; China 2.9; Mexico 2.2; Australia 2.0 and Russia 2.0. The five most popular online course subject areas by number of enrollments are: Computer science, humanities, business and management, economics and finance, and information, technology and design.

According to a survey by U.S. News & World Report in 2018, the number of students taking online courses based on data from 4,700 colleges and universities has grown to more than 6.3 million in the U.S. alone – continuing a growth trend that has been consistently rising for 14 years.

The Online Learning Consortium says more than a quarter of higher education students (28 percent) are enrolled in at least one online course, while others say the percentage is now closer to 33 percent. Some 71 percent of all online students are male, and 29 percent are female.

This Internet learning phenomena has progressed through three distinct phases, according to the OpenupEd Trend Report in 2018. It started over a decade ago as a marketing tool to increase student recruitment and as a way for colleges and universities to build and maintain their brand, as well as a way to offset the fear of not gaining new enrollments if they did not keep up with the 'Jones' at other more avant-garde schools.

Online education soon evolved into a tool focused on life-long learning for students and the general public alike. Today online learning has taken its place among other sources of college credit leading to bachelor's and master's degrees, as well as being part of continuing professional development designed for those seeking credentials and certifications. Of all degrees taken online, bachelor's degrees account for 34 percent; master's degrees 31; high school diplomas 17; doctorates 7; associate degrees 5; and junior high 3 (with 3 percent other).

'There is an urgent need for all of us to reset our thinking when it comes to understanding how early inventors, entrepreneurs and leaders — such as Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison Abraham Lincoln — accomplished what they did. Lincoln didn't go to law school, he read law books at night,' said Gardner. 'Through trial and error, Edison failed 1,000 times before inventing the light bulb. Success was not measured by receiving formal education as much as it was by self-learning and self-sufficiency.'

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