The education sector is one that’s ripe for disruption: despite funnelling thousands of promising young people through the system each day, there remains a challenge in connecting those people to careers that truly unearth and use their potential. What’s more, the democratisation of university places has had little impact on this fact – this is because for many children, higher education is not preparing them for the careers that will exist now and in the near future.
It’s for this reason that we’ve seen recent changes to the model, such as encouraging apprenticeships, so people can access the marketplace alongside studying.
It’s within this context that US Startup MissionU has an intriguing premise: rather than burdening its students with the debts that come from a standard university education, they provide young people with an intensive 1 year qualification that equips students with the business and technical skills they need to secure an entry level job in tech-driven businesses.
This is an exciting development for the industry as a whole, but especially in the US, where graduates can often emerge with tuition fees up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. This causes two problems within the context enabling genuine social mobility: the colleges that more readily open up leadership positions, or other opportunities and connections in business are closed to those than cannot afford these fees. Even the young people that can afford them start their careers with huge debts. With MissionU’s model, debt doesn’t happen; students only pay for the course (as a salary deduction over three years) once they secure a job. This means that they only succeed if their students do.
It will be interesting to see whether this business model makes it across the atlantic – the job market in tech is booming and there is a need to help education become more successful in connecting young people to a fast moving job market effectively.
This video provides a deeper dive into the concept.