• Get Ahead With a Mentor

    I am fortunate to have had two tremendous mentors in my life. My experiences had such a powerful, lasting impact on me, I feel compelled to share my stories and promote mentorships. I created this graphic without doing any research or reading articles on mentoring, this was based on purely personal reflection of my experiences.… Continue Reading

  • Inspiration Behind Learning Labels

    I hear the remark: “So these Skills Labels, they are like nutritional labels but for learning (education)”. As I made clear the inspiration did not start with a nutritional label. Though later it had some influence. A nutritional label is a highly effective standard display, it: reads well – understandable to children to adults, informs,… Continue Reading

  • Skills Label, Experiential Learning

    When I was a teenager and had free time, I satisfied my desire to learn my own way. I read old dusty ’80s encyclopedias and National Geographic magazines lying around from my older brother’s subscription. Teenagers learn differently: practicing or drilling sports, playing video (and now online) games, etc. Give students their time to learn… Continue Reading

  • Skills Label (Personalized Learning and PBL)

    Academia is talking about personalized and deeper learning, something I have advocated with the Skills Based Approach methodology and application for its inception in 2013. The methodology is focused entirely on an individual. The application is meant to be handled by the student or young professional to manage their learning tasks. Skills Label represents learning… Continue Reading

  • Finding the Key to the Skills Gap

    There is a skills gap, actually two different ones. One is in filling highly technical jobs, and the other is filling middle skill jobs; the latter representing as much as 40% of new job growth according to a US News article. The skill gap requires new tactics from impressionable students and workers, higher education and… Continue Reading

  • Skills Culture Could Help With High School Engagement

    Student engagement dramatically falls from middle school to high school. According to a massive survey of US and Canadian students, Gallup found almost ‘three quarters of all surveyed fifth-grade students’ are engaged, while only ‘one-third of surveyed students in 10th, 11th and 12th grades are engaged”. Yes, high schoolers are growing outside of the classroom,… Continue Reading

  • Adopting a Skills Culture

    In part, I came up with the name “Skills Culture” as a rip from “Talent Culture” – a website I have been following for years. Talent Culture is an edgy, smart concept (career, leadership, and workplace advice) directed towards sophisticated white collar workers; Megan Brio does a great job. (Still in the early stages, but… Continue Reading

  • Introduction to Skills Based Approach

    Three advantages of Skills Based Approach are: simplicity, longevity, and adaptability. Simplicity refers to ease of use. Everyone knows what they are dealing with: a skill set, competencies and methods, and constantly cycling through four stages. Skill Based Approach also solves the complexity of education and career planning. There are many ways to approach planning… Continue Reading