Thread by @jwbrown556

One of the problems (and there are many) with tying post-secondary education funding to the ‘needs of the labour market’ is that it’s question-begging to invoke labour market ‘needs’. The labour market isn’t some naturally evolving ecosystem:

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Policy & legislative decisions are made that (along with a myriad of other variables), shape the labour market, which determines what training is in demand, which in turn reinforces labour conditions.

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E.g., if a govt passes legislation removing paid sick days & blocking a fair min. wage, favours corporate interests, & makes it more difficult for workers to gain fair representation, this shapes the labour market, making the ‘gig economy’ & precarious work look inevitable.

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Then, lo & behold, micro-credentials and just-in- time training are what is needed to prepare students for this gig-economy to which they’re consigned—and this is what post-secondary institutions then supposedly have to ‘respond to’.

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A regressive vision of what the world of work can be goes hand-in-hand with a diminished vision of education and, indeed, of what it means to be a citizen (as opposed to a widget in a consumerist interface).

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#onpse
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