Dr Flavius Akerele III's The E Team Education blog

" Certificate programs have become increasingly popular in the American education system, but is a certificate a smarter choice for you than a traditional college degree? Let's explore some questions you should ask yourself to make the right choice for you! What's the Difference? Generally speaking, certificates offer 'bite-sized' pieces of education that usually provide practical workplace skills in a short period of time. Meanwhile, college degrees provide a larger educational base and take a bit longer to complete. You are probably most familiar with associate's and bachelor's degrees, which generally take two and four years to earn, respectively. Certificates vary in length, too, but nearly all take less than two years and most last less than one year, according to the  Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce  (GCEW). Certificates are also more focused on occupational-specific training instead of the broader general education goals of trad...

There is a humorous video I show in the first part of one of my HR classes called “when Barry Met Sammy- A Funny View of HR and KM”, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu9QWojx8qE While it is funny, it underscores a serious problem companies have, and industries have (including the higher education industry): leadership often does not show that they value their employees, in fact the reward for good work is often more work. What is the difficulty with acknowledging the work your employees do on a regular basis and rewarding them for it? I have said a million times before and I will say it again: YOUR EMPLOYEES ARE YOUR MOST VALUABLE ASSETS! This is a simple lesson to learn, and in theory it should be simple to practice; there is data that proves this. But the data is not being looked at, or at least not until it is too late. We teach this stuff in our universities, but why oh why, can we not learn it ourselves?! Education and specifically higher educa...

I have worked in education for more than 20 years now, the last 10 of them in higher education. One is not better than the other because we need strong K12 education in order to have successful higher education candidates. Something I will say K12 does do better than Higher Ed is certifications. While I am not especially fond of the current K12 teacher certification process, I do like that for every type of educational position, whether it is academic, counselling, or leadership, you must acquire training. Higher education has no such training requirement. If you are an instructor you must obviously show subject matter competency, usually through your degree and sometimes through work experience, and for an academic leader, there is no specific training. Why is that? A PhD does not necessarily give you the skills needed to be a competent academic leader; plus, more and more, especially in the non-traditional market, a doctorate is not required for a leadership p...