Note: Some of the audio and video transcripts have been lightly edited and condensed.

Media 1 (Audio): Mike Kirst: ” My biggest challenge is it deals with three different audiences: K-12, post-secondary ed, and workforce.”

(1:09 seconds)  

 

Mike Kirst: It would be something around certificates and credentials. Certainly, one would be the number of providers of badges, certificate…: It’s astounding. The biggest thing that people aren’t catching onto is how huge this thing is. By thing, I mean the certificates, licenses, credentials, badges. [Chuckles] The production of them is all over the place; it’s just growing like mad. And we’re still looking at degrees.

What we look at for the community colleges is not all of the lower recognition they give… it’s the two-year degree—the associate’s degree. They [most community college students in California] just skip it; they don’t even take it; they don’t even apply for it. They just want to transfer. They’re not interested in the two-year degree.

Media 2 (Audio): Mike Kirst: “It’s astounding…the number … of certificates, licenses, credentials, [and] badges…”

(50 seconds)  

 

Mike Kirst: It would be something around certificates and credentials. Certainly, one would be the number of providers of badges, certificate…: It’s astounding. The biggest thing that people aren’t catching onto is how huge this thing is. By thing, I mean the certificates, licenses, credentials, badges. [Chuckles] The production of them is all over the place; it’s just growing like mad. And we’re still looking at degrees.
What we look at for the community colleges is not all of the lower recognition they give… it’s the two-year degree–the associate’s degree. They [most community college students in California] just skip it; they don’t even take it; they don’t even apply for it. They just want to transfer. They’re not interested in the two-year degree.

Media 3 (Audio): Mike Kirst: “’Hit’em where they ain’t’…You can be a leader there.”

(23 seconds) 

 

Mike Kirst: Not many people were working the seam of higher ed, lower ed.

So again, I want to stress the consistent thing–I guess I have used this before–of the Ty Cobb’s [saying] “I hit it where they ain’t.” Look for stuff that’s really undiscovered, has a huge potential upside, and nobody else much is in that field. You can be a leader there.