Despite the aspirations of “College for All,” more than 60% of adults still lack a college degree in a world where degrees unlocks access to quality careers. There is growing momentum amongst employers, educational institutions, policymakers and learners around skills and competencies as the new “atomic level” of education, learning, assessment, hiring and career growth. What does this mean for learners, schools, companies, industries and funders? How will this help the adult learner problem? What are the challenges this presents to various stakeholders, and how are those challenges being approached? This talk will dive into these topics and questions and offer solutions.
This year's keynote session comes to us from Bill Hughes, President & CEO of Education Design Lab.
Bill Hughes is the President and CEO of the Education Design Lab based in Washington, DC. The objective of the Education Design Lab is to co-design and build equitable, learner-centered approaches with colleges, universities, employers, foundations, and regions.
Prior to joining the Lab, Bill was the founder and CEO of JobReady (acquired by LearningMate).
Previously, Hughes was chief strategy officer at Learning Objects (acquired by Cengage) and led business development at Pearson. He co-founded Intellus Learning (acquired by Macmillan) and oversaw the transformation of Pearson’s learning products into its flagship MyLab platform. Over the past 25 years, Hughes has held leadership positions at Sapient, Mercer, and the Cambridge Innovation Center. In addition, he was a member of the board of trustees of Kaplan University (now Purdue University Global). He currently serves as a board member of Berkshire Bank (NYSE: BHLB).