UW–Madison’s Matthew Hora was featured in a Business 20/20 podcast produced by the Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Program.
Hora is the director of UW–Madison’s Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions (CCWT), which is housed within the School of Education’s Wisconsin Center for Education Research. He also serves as an assistant professor of adult and higher education.
The podcast episode, titled “The Humanities and Business Education in an Economic Crisis,” focuses on the return on investment of a college education, and the false choice between a liberal arts or more career-oriented education.
Hora spoke about the so-called “skills gap,” which suggests colleges are not preparing students for employment.
“The idea of the skills gap — by pointing solely to higher education and the educational system as the cause for hiring difficulties — it’s really a piece of fiction,” Hora said.
Though the term originated in the 1970s, Hora said its use picked up in the 1980s, when, he explained, “There was a lot angst and anxiety about whether graduates in the U.S. educational system were receiving the right skills, or competitive skills.”
Hora said employability is a lot more complicated than a mismatch between the job market and education.
“There are so many other factors involved in employment, such as the business cycle, hiring discrimination… whether or not in that specific geography where a student is located, are there jobs, are there good jobs?”
To learn more, check out the full episode on the Aspen Institute website, here.