Daniel W. Rasmus University of Phoenix Interview

The impact of outcomes-based education on workforce preparedness

Jill Elaine Hughes, UOPX Writer Network, April 6, 2011

Dan’s Quotes:

How might the American education system address this deficiency? Daniel W. Rasmus is a Liberal Arts Fellow at Bellevue College in Bellevue, Wash., and the author of the books “Listening to the Future” (Wiley, 2008) and “Management By Design” (Wiley, 2010). An independent management consultant and a former director of business insights for Microsoft Corporation, Rasmus offers a number of innovative ideas for how the U.S. education system can reshape itself to become more relevant to employers and the 21st-century workplace. Rasmus’ ideas are shaped from a concept called New World of Work, which he created while working at Microsoft and continues to drive his ideas today. “The distribution of American work has changed, and expectations for workers have evolved,” Rasmus says. “As we consider the future of education, we need to design solutions that aren’t about bricks and sidewalks … but about turning the knowledge economy — through education — into the driver for the next economy.”

Rasmus believes that in order for education to remain relevant, it needs to become more student-centered. “I like the idea that learners need to build their own model of learning,” he says. “My role as an educator is to help guide their development and inform their model.”

That said, Rasmus also believes that one of the best ways to make education relevant to the workplace is to blur the divisions that currently exist between the two. “Think holistically about facilities, and drive toward a breakdown of boundaries between K-12, vocational school and community college,” he says. “Hire the retired or skilled out-of-work professionals to complement teaching, including coaching educators on what is new and different about learning models from the business perspective. Rather than thinking about schools as single-purpose facilities, transform them into cross-generational learning hubs.”