When we look at the state of traditional higher education, it astonishes us how long the status quo has been allowed to continue. Tuition prices are on the rise and the effectiveness of college at preparing students for jobs is dubious at best, but the higher education establishment rarely looks inward to examine if its entire model needs an extreme makeover. Perhaps there’s a perceived insurmountability to a system that’s kept things “the way they are” for more than a century, but of any industry in the country, higher education seems the most in need of a drastic reimagining.

For this reason, it’s inspiring to see fellow innovators join Knod in taking a radically different look at learning and professional development. In a thoughtful piece from the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, Julia Freeland Fisher discusses the area of mentorship specifically, but also education as a whole. She points out how initiatives have been aimed at making mentorship a beneficial intervention (or “sustaining innovation”) within the current higher education system, but have failed to examine whether the network actually allows underprivileged learners to benefit from the relationship a mentor provides. She quips:

“It’s not surprising that today most mentorship efforts join a host of other interventions we hope can move the needle on our existing metrics of high school and college success. But as such, we risk limiting mentorship to being only an intervention that might help our current systems work better, rather than a tool to fundamentally disrupt the system. We also risk belittling relationships as merely a means to an end, rather than an end unto themselves.”

At Knod, we understand that the current system needs fixing – not just for underprivileged learners, but everyone. Lectures, note taking and tests are outdated forms of measurement for someone’s ability to be gainfully employed. This is why Knod is leaving behind “sustaining innovations,” instead opting to disruptively innovate the talent development industry through employer-engaged project-based learning.

We don’t lecture or instruct. We pair learners in teams to work on real projects for real employers, and trust that experience trumps any other form of learning. At Knod, learners are responsible for their own development process, are always supported by coaches that help them to guide their path not just to learn, but also to become real professionals. When we surveyed learners from our most recent three cohorts, more than 82 percent of our Knod learners reported feeling well connected to coaches and mentors, an extremely high number compared with traditional online education. And more importantly, more than 94 percent said they are benefitting from their employer-engaged project-based learning experience.

We focus not just on hard skills, but the soft skills that help people keep excelling in their work: communication, leadership, critical thinking, teamwork, and problem solving. Lastly, all of our mentors are Knod learners who have recently been through the project-based learning experience themselves, and are thus able to build more authentic relationships of support and assistance for our learners, especially in mastering the various technologies used in the modern workplace. We’ve found that technical skills are better developed through experience than through classroom instruction. In fact, 96 percent of learners from our last three cohorts claim they feel comfortable working with computers – an astonishing number, considering many of our learners have never touched a computer prior to joining Knod.

Like Fisher, we know it’s time to reevaluate how we think about learning by promoting models that don’t just intervene in education, but actually disrupt professional development model. It’s time to “break open the system” and pioneer new ways of letting real learning take place. As we critically evaluate how to better prepare entry-level employees for a job market that’s as competitive as it’s ever been, we can’t hang our heads in resignation. This is why, in the face of the monolith of higher education, Knod is working with employers to take control of preparing their employees on their own. This disruptive new practice of employer-engaged project-based learning puts projects, teamwork, mentorship and experiences at the forefront of learning.

This was originally posted on the Knod Blog at Knod.net