By John Bebow - October 19, 2007
What else, other than Michigan's massive universities, will lead the state to a new, diversified, globally competitive economy?
That's Freep business columnist Tom Walsh's question after academic and business leaders gathered in Ann Arbor this week for a two-day conference: The Role of Engaged Universitiies In Economic Transformation."
Technology Correspondent Matt Roush offers excellent cliff's notes here.
Beyond the universities, though, there are hundreds of thousands of Michigan workers who aren't destined for advanced degrees. "Fixing the Leaky Pipeline"explores how to retrofit this often-overlooked, but huge, segment of our economy.
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Although I don't have a good answer to motivate people to particpate in their own education, or a plan for the educational processes in the "Leaky Pipeline", there is a new breed of technology platform emerging that could support the entire process statewide, that can be leveraged by every state, NPO or educational entity in the state to manage and track remote training, compliance, individual costs and performance metrics for this type of program.
These are globally capable technology training management systems, and the complete basic services package is being made available at no charge to NPO and Small-mid sized business entities, those least likely to be able to afford, yet most needy in areas of fianaces for resource training management and productivity enhancement.
The system is not dedicated to any content or technology delivery method, therefore it supports classroom, remote, spot and blended learning opportunities from the management perspective, with complete expenditure, use and compliance tracking.
Funding for the program is provided by the training or courseware suppliers in the form of a small transaction fee charged if, & When, there is a purchase made for their product offerings, making it a true 'pay as you go' service program, designed for the economically challenged, but with high visibility and management requirements. There is minimal implementation expense or resource drain, because the entire application is online with no user fees for the basic system.
How does this affect a statewide or NPO funded program? By offering the abiliy to track and manage the use of grant funds for trainiing by individual, by provider group or NPO, within a curriculum over time, and provide for mile stone skills assessments to assure effective results for the investment. The answer is a global, web based activity based costing (expense) tracking and management tool that can be populated and funded by the learning suppliers, with administrative access by a multiple, diverse level program funding/grant agencies.
There are several similar programs coming into the market over the next six months, primarily by vertical market, but all are adaptable to the requirements of a grant funded program, managed by third parties, content supplied by third parties, yet accountability and tracking requirements remaining at the program source.
Because the online services are funded by, and students populated by the vendors themselves, the administrative resources are more of a funding approval, audit tracking function which can be integrated into the state or NPO finance systems.
Technology online is taking a major leap over the next year and there are ways to leverage this without the big up front investment.
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