Success-Driven Learning

I love this concept, and I think it's an excellent idea. I would even love to see it implemented in a private K-12 institution as a test run...with guarantees of acceptance into an *elite* list of universities. It would be very interesting to see what the results are. I like that this puts the onus on the school (and teachers) to make sure that they truly are providing an excellent education. I can see that there would be some who get a 'free' education....but in the end, if they're not achieving meaningful employment afterwards, then it really comes back to bite them anyway. BUT!!! As intriguing as the idea/concept is - I would need to really see the specific agreements that are made. I can think of too many loopholes on both the side of the student and the institution that *could* but used to get out of paying (or get paid without providing the education). I.e. instititions could make back-room deals with companies that "hire" their grads so the school gets paid...and then they just happen to downsize and let the employees go. Too many unknowns without seeing the actual agreements.

Intriguing idea. Drives school to be high quality as they don't get paid without delivering. Also has the flavour of socially progressive student loan ideas such as not having to pay them back until professional employment is procured, or free (state sponsored) post secondary ed that is actually financed by the tax revenues from professionals. The difficulty I see, as noted in the post, (and this is from my personal experience, not reliable data) is that the variable at play here is "the quality of education" alone and doesn't account for the unmotivated and extenuating circumstance students that I work with day-to-day. This model assumes all graduates will be highly productive and that just isn't true for all k-12 demographics.

In my current course Work and Learning in the ALGC program, we are discussing employability: its definition, the internal and external factors that influence an individual's employability, the role of educators in teaching these skills and encouraging experiential learning, the role of educational institutions and training providers in collaborating with employers seeking skilled workers, and in turn, the overall economic implications. While the model of success-driven learning organizations like Lambda school may operate differently, there are similar government initiatives already in place such as in the UK, where they have raised the threshold and as of 2021 post-graduate students will not have to make payments toward their students loans until they are making more than 25,000 euros a year, and they have also reduced the maximum repayment period for these student loans. While the concept of "free" education may be attractive to prospective students and perhaps encourage more individuals to pursue higher education, the biggest concern lies within the quality of the education/training and whether or not it will effectively foster employability and the development of highly skilled workers in demanding sectors and facilitate economic growth within a nation.

I can relate to Carlo's comment. Despite that in this set up for schools it might not work exactly, I truly believe that in line with "life long learning", the skills and competences in the digital economy are changing hence our learning and development planning needs to be adjusted. There is no "space" and time any more to just educate people, train people for a long time, and have them be successful or not successful in the workforce. Its to late to measure it as skills and development are changing. I think Success-Driven learning could be an ideal opportunity for professional / corporate employment market. For example, Normally in companies "further development" and new trainings are offer to to employees with the aim to maybe make a career step, a promotion or a switch or to take on new tasks. However the reality is that often this learning landscape is not mirroring the talent / development landscape in a lot of companies. The ones in need for further development are often not exposed to the real needs. But staff members could benefit from "Success driven learning", whereby education and training is offered for free until you have made that promotion or career switch. The employer would then for example be able to gain a certain amount back from the employee upon success. Then it will also be more carefully reviewed what kind of education and further developments ares offered and what should be the objective / clear planning behind this for employee and company.

Despite the fact this may not be possible to implement in a K-12 model, I find this market to be a very interesting model when it comes to addressing the issue of student debt. I feel that it is important to clarify that while it is partially true that "everything is free", the school enters into an income-sharing contract with students, binding them to an agreement that simply allows students to pay the tuition once they obtain a paying job. So essentially it's "everything is free... until it's not". Regardless - the idea of success-driven learning, and income-sharing agreements is one that I find fascinating in terms of relieving the stress of student debt. When comparing ISA's to the conventional student loan, I feel that ISAs offer more flexibility primarily because they ensure the student can afford it. With a standard student loan, the nominal monthly fee is fixed and therefore potentially hard to manage considering a student's current financial position, whereas the ISA is flexible and ensures that students will be able to afford it regardless of current circumstances.