When One Size Doesn't Fit All

The higher education system is well past its use by date. The unit and credit system, as we know it today, emerged at the end of the 19th Century when Andrew Carnegie, hoping to ensure equal opportunity for teachers to receive a pension, decided that a standardized measurement of teaching and learning was in order. The 120-hour Carnegie unit, which measures learning as time spent in your classroom seat, prevails to this day. Several decades after it's inception, the new head of the Carnegie Foundation acknowledged the system's obsolescence:

“The system of units and credits, which, useful as it was a third of century ago, is not good enough for American education today. Higher education appears to be well on its way to another stage of development in which promotion, at least in college, will be based upon ‘the attainments of minds thoroughly stored and competent.’” - Walter A. Jessup, Carnegie Foundation 1938

The movement towards Competency Based Education (CBL) aims to address the glaring issues with the current system and caters to the huge number of global learners who's needs are not currently being met. CBL requires learners to demonstrate learning in tangible, concrete ways as opposed to measuring how long they spend in lectures or through other abstract measures. Lumina's Report How Competency Based Education May Help Reduce Our Nation’s Toughest Inequities does a good job of outlining some of CBL's major benefits: reducing the achievement, attainment, opportunity and skills gap for America's underserved communities. CBL aims to be a pathway to economic advancement for learners for who the system doesn't currently work for, such as the 7 million unemployed American adults or the 30 plus million adults in the United States who have some college experience but no credential.

While many employers hope to recruit new talent that can demonstrate their learning and work through portfolios, showreels, blogs etc. there is still, understandably, favoritism shown to graduates of well established universities. As CBL models of learning become more widely accepted, not only will a wider number of learners have the opportunities for advancement through flexible learning programs but employers will gain better insights into what their applicants actually know and can do.