I recently noticed that Starbucks initiated a College Achievement Plan. Starbucks’ partners (employees) who pursue a college degree at Arizona State University (ASU) will receive some combination of tuition reimbursement, scholarships, and other financial aid from the company to help them graduate. Starbucks’ partners may choose from 40 ASU undergraduate degree programs delivered online.
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The plan seems to help with the problem we have in this country of many college graduates and non-graduates being saddled with excessive student loan debt.
Starbucks’ effort reminded me of a similar initiative we are taking at my own college, Lansing Community College (LCC), to reduce the cost of higher education and simultaneously improve the KSAs (knowledge, skills, and abilities, or knowledge, skills, and attitudes, whichever definition you find most useful) students will need as employees, entrepreneurs, lifelong students, and citizens.
When a small group of us at the college recently volunteered to investigate the feasibility of a pilot project in competency-based education (CBE), we attended a workshop on the topic to jump-start our investigation. The essential idea of CBE is to focus on what students are competent at, rather than the number of hours spent in a classroom. The CBE approach expects that graduates can better perform in the workplace and in real life, and will have spent less money to earn their degrees.
We envision CBE at LCC to begin with a collaboratively developed articulation of the competencies our students need to be successful graduates. Next we expect to develop innovative yet reliable ways to assess those competencies. Finally, we expect to provide an array of alternative methods by which our students can achieve those competencies, such as online and face-to-face courses, independent study, organizational and community improvement projects, condensed face-to-face and online workshops, and individual coaching and mentoring.
There’s a pattern here. Do you remember W. Edwards Deming’s 14 points? Point No. 13 says, “Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement for everyone.” Deming also thought training was important. Point No. 6 is “Institute training on the job.” Whenever anyone would ask him how to improve individual performance on the job, he would frequently say to provide training. If training and all other improvement tactics failed, he would say that a person who continued to perform poorly might have to be trained for another job in another organization.
Training is essential, but it’s not what Starbucks, Arizona State, and LCC are involved in. We are involved in point No. 13, education and self-improvement, which may or may not be directly connected to the work on an employee’s job. When Deming first proposed point No. 13, it was controversial. It still is. It is important, however, because we want our employees and ourselves to become evermore creative, thoughtful, and motivated, so providing broader education and self-improvement opportunities beyond what training provides is essential.
Besides the slightly indefinite benefits of education and self-improvement, the Starbucks plan documents another reason for the controversy. The plan states, “Partners have no commitment to stay.” Why would an employer help employees become more valuable to the organization only to see them leave? I’m reminded of a similar, personal situation. Most of my higher education was funded by General Motors. God bless them. I know they don’t seem to be doing so well these days, but before the pressures of international competition, it seemed to be a pretty well-run company. GM paid me to get my BME at General Motors Institute (GMI, now Kettering University) with no expectation that I would stay at General Motors. Despite that openness, I remember that 80 percent of GMI graduates stayed around. GM also paid for my MBA, even though I left a year after that graduation. That system worked well for me and, I believe, worked well for them.
As you consider how to encourage more education and self-improvement at your own organization, you may want to also consider how to encourage graduates to stay. You might want to reexamine things such as competitive salary and benefits; clearer internal developmental opportunities; and more chances for job growth, creativity, meaningful work, and opportunities to contribute beyond the organizational walls. You might even want to take a look at our forthcoming book, The Transformative Workplace, for other ideas. (What shameless self-promotion!)
I hope you will seriously consider your own education and self-improvement, and that of the folks who work with and for you. The wisdom of Deming and my own experience tell me that it will improve performance, be fun, and “grow people, purpose, prosperity, and peace” (from our book). As always, I look forward to your comments and questions.
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