In this episode of the “New Skills Marketplace” podcast, Andy Smarick (AEI) and John Bailey (AEI) sit down with Liz Simon from General Assembly to talk about coding bootcamps and their role in closing the skills gap. Liz first outlines how General Assembly is providing pathways for nontraditional learners to reskill [7:55]. She then describes how General Assembly developed a framework to assess student outcomes and measure program quality [16:49]. Next, Liz offers her viewpoint on the Educational Quality through Innovation Partnerships pilot, Title IV expansion, and the future of workforce development [21:38]. Finally, Andy and John reflect on their conversation with Liz [34:11].

Subscribe to AEI Podcast Channel in Apple Podcasts (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in Apple Podcasts or by RSS feed.


Published in: Education

There are 4 comments.

Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
  1. mildlyo Member
    mildlyo
    @mildlyo

    Ms. Simon sounds like she has the jargon down backwards and forwards, but something about this GA organization reminds me of all the “smartest people in the room” in the early days of Enron.

    Sure hope I’m wrong about that.

    • #1
  2. Snirtler Inactive
    Snirtler
    @Snirtler

    I thought this interview was very interesting.

    @mildlyo, your comment was equally interesting. What about the interview was redolent of charlatanism or suggestive of fraud (if I’m understanding the drift of your comment correctly)?

    • #2
  3. mildlyo Member
    mildlyo
    @mildlyo

    It’s been a while and I don’t remember many specifics. There was a lot of jargon like “up-skilling” used to sell vocational training of programming skills. I guess it is common for salespersons to try to convince you that every service they are selling will revolutionize the world. I took a look at the website for GA and thought it looked thin on details and long on graphics. Reminds me of the “generic consultant” product being sold in the tech boom of a decade ago.

    Just a though. I confess I didn’t spend much time working on a defense of my comment at the time I made it. Maybe I should keep notes.

    • #3
  4. Snirtler Inactive
    Snirtler
    @Snirtler

    mildlyo (View Comment):
    It’s been a while and I don’t remember many specifics. There was a lot of jargon like “up-skilling” used to sell vocational training of programming skills. I guess it is common for salespersons to try to convince you that every service they are selling will revolutionize the world. I took a look at the website for GA and thought it looked thin on details and long on graphics. Reminds me of the “generic consultant” product being sold in the tech boom of a decade ago.

    Just a though. I confess I didn’t spend much time working on a defense of my comment at the time I made it. Maybe I should keep notes.

    Thanks for taking the time to reply. It’s rare for exchanges in the comments to occur on these more obscure podcasts. So it’s entirely understandable that members just do some drive-by commenting without elaborate explanations.

    Anyway, I think I see where you’re going with the “generic consultant” critique. Thanks again.

     

    • #4
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.