On the purpose of the BARKalaureate and DOGtorate

Yet again, Humphrey finds himself contemplating the purpose of education with respect to “skills” that higher dog education can promote in order to help pups make it in the economic realm. As an educator in both BARKalaureate (undergrad) and DOGtorate (grad) canine education, he can’t avoid these controversies.

He always begins such contemplation with a quick review ofthe aims of education – and readers know he just about always defers to Chris Hodgkinson on such matters. Hodgkinson’s “Education is Special” essay summarizes the multiple and complementary purposes of education: to cultivate democratic, technical/instrumental and aesthetic capacities in learners. NelNodding’s views on happiness as a central educational aim is also a priority for Humphrey.

Humphrey is a working dog who does many things that require multiple skill sets and knowledge.

This week, the Higher Canine Education Quality Office (HCEQO) released another report on this, claiming, “that Canis Familiari face a widespread skills gap has come to dominate headlines and policy debates. Discussions on skilled dog shortages often implicate the canine higher education system. Some employers and top dogs in industry have voiced concern that the system is not graduating pups with the skills needed by the labour market.”

They go on to discuss recent research, with the proviso that: “top dogs may say one thing, but do another—a reality that can, in part, be captured by how they advertise for the positions they seek to fill.” And so they went about examining job advertisements to understand what skills are lacking. Humphrey certainly questions this methodology in light of other forms of research!

In particular, he revisited a favorite bit of research from Emery Hyslop-Margison and Benjamin Welsh, Career Education and Labor Market Conditions: The Skills Gap Myth (2004, J. of Ed. Thought). Sadly, it’s not the most recent, yet it remains relevant. Hyslop-Margison and Welsh found that while there is much public discourse about the absence of sufficient “skilled” working dogs generated from higher canine education, this is contrary to labor market projections that the vast majority of jobs coming up will be low skilled. In other words, a lot of people will be required to make the kibble each morning for the (relatively smaller) proportion of top dogs who are needed for “high skill” jobs. The dominant career talk in classes like those Humphrey leads are “predicated on fallacious assumptions” about employment patterns.

More recent 2013 data out of Wisconsin confirms (at least locally) that huge proportions of jobs are in service sectors requiring no higher canine education whatsoever! But does this mean that since people are going to have low-skilled jobs, they should not even bother with higher canine education (remember this post from Humphrey?)?

Humphrey acknowledges that’s merely a matter of opinion. Sure, if you “buy” that higher canine education exists strictly to get a job, then there doesn't seem to be much point in any education! But Humphrey, like Chris Hodgkinson, has other ideas about the purpose (and value) of education.  When done well, it ought to enrich the learner’s life by inviting the learner to think and know. He’s confident the barkalaureate dogs are exposed to all kinds of ideas and positions that they would probably never hear about! 

What could be more enriching than identifying your own epistemological position, and maybe even changing it upon exposure to new ideas? What could be more empowering than seeing how structures work (from organizational structures, to social structures) and thinking about ways to deal with those structures with the goal of creating (in Mark Kingwell’s work) the world we want? What about learning to read and analyze and maybe even critique “texts” (where text means everything from popular culture, to media, to the arts, to political rhetoric and policy)? And on top of that, comparing one’s own assessments of these things to others from different walks of life?

That, Humphrey believes, is where education has value. These are transferable skills that might not directly contribute to everyone’s employability, but will make them more fulfilled canine citizens, friends, fathers, daughters, sisters and brothers.Astoundingly, a 2012 Time Magazine article stated that, “pressed for more evidence, roughly 10% of employers admit that the problem is really that the candidates they want won’t accept the positions at the wage level being offered. That’s not a skill shortage, it’s simply being unwilling to pay the going price.”

A tutorial session in progress about labor market conditions. The appetite for Humphrey's vast expertise is not limited to learners of the Canis Familiaris persuasion. Humans also value his analytic work!

Author of that article Peter Cappelli goes on to say, “by far the most important shortfall they see in candidates is a lack of experience doing similar jobs” – not a lack of education in specific skills. Positions, the author reports, remain unfilled waiting for an unrealistic “perfect fit.” Cappelli contrasts this with his observations about the good ol’ days “a generation ago, employers routinely hired dogs right out of school and were willing to provide [training for] almost all their skills.”