Interesting idea. What sort of funding requirements are you envisioning? How many people? I'd love to see one of these in a number of countries - perhaps are working together to figure out the model.
imho great things start small. Begin with ~5-10 project leads and ~10 technical staff, then bring on ~20 journeymen and then ~20 apprentices over the course of a year, work out the kinks, and then scale slowly. Ramp up from ~$5M/year to ~$20M/year.
Any ideas about the hard problem of assessment? Both for hiring and for a post-apprenticeship "credential"? Or should "wasn't fired" be enough of a signal for future employers?
I agree that there is a need for specialized, project-oriented technical education for the space industry. This need is likely present for a multitude of industries. One example of such training can be seen at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. I worked at IIT in the '90's and saw the hands-on efforts of the mostly first-generation college going students, many of whom were completing their degrees in night programs, so they could work and gain technical experience during the day. Such renowned technologists such as Marty Cooper ('50/M.S.'57, inventor of the first hand-held cell phone) and Marc Hannah ('77, founder of Silicon Graphics, pioneered 3D rendering software) graduated from IIT.
In my experience, alumni and others will be compelled to philanthropically support technical, hands-on education. For decades there has been nostalgia for the hallowed halls of Bell Labs. Perhaps some of that technical and team-driven innovation magic can be implemented through the concepts for the Hardcore Institute of Technology that you outlined!
I'd be eager to have more science institutes. I remember writing a few short stories in Spectech a few years ago. It'd be cool to work on a longer story involving this institute.
Some industries have had training programs that run along similar lines. It happens when some industry needs a lot of people with new skill sets and the people coming out of colleges aren't quite there. For example, the IT industry in India has had such programs for a long time where they hire people with various degrees (not necessarily CS), call them "trainees" rather than employees, and train them for a period of weeks to months on various IT related real world tasks. Depending on how well they do at them, they get hired as programmers or QA or UX or whatever. The rest would be let go. They may not be as “hard core” as you might have imagined but they’re still valuable.
I think this sort of model will become essential as AI disrupts the job landscape and colleges have trouble adjusting quickly.
Interesting idea. What sort of funding requirements are you envisioning? How many people? I'd love to see one of these in a number of countries - perhaps are working together to figure out the model.
imho great things start small. Begin with ~5-10 project leads and ~10 technical staff, then bring on ~20 journeymen and then ~20 apprentices over the course of a year, work out the kinks, and then scale slowly. Ramp up from ~$5M/year to ~$20M/year.
Any ideas about the hard problem of assessment? Both for hiring and for a post-apprenticeship "credential"? Or should "wasn't fired" be enough of a signal for future employers?
Yeah -- if it is sufficiently hardcore, survival is the only necessary credential.
I agree that there is a need for specialized, project-oriented technical education for the space industry. This need is likely present for a multitude of industries. One example of such training can be seen at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. I worked at IIT in the '90's and saw the hands-on efforts of the mostly first-generation college going students, many of whom were completing their degrees in night programs, so they could work and gain technical experience during the day. Such renowned technologists such as Marty Cooper ('50/M.S.'57, inventor of the first hand-held cell phone) and Marc Hannah ('77, founder of Silicon Graphics, pioneered 3D rendering software) graduated from IIT.
In my experience, alumni and others will be compelled to philanthropically support technical, hands-on education. For decades there has been nostalgia for the hallowed halls of Bell Labs. Perhaps some of that technical and team-driven innovation magic can be implemented through the concepts for the Hardcore Institute of Technology that you outlined!
I'd be eager to have more science institutes. I remember writing a few short stories in Spectech a few years ago. It'd be cool to work on a longer story involving this institute.
Some industries have had training programs that run along similar lines. It happens when some industry needs a lot of people with new skill sets and the people coming out of colleges aren't quite there. For example, the IT industry in India has had such programs for a long time where they hire people with various degrees (not necessarily CS), call them "trainees" rather than employees, and train them for a period of weeks to months on various IT related real world tasks. Depending on how well they do at them, they get hired as programmers or QA or UX or whatever. The rest would be let go. They may not be as “hard core” as you might have imagined but they’re still valuable.
I think this sort of model will become essential as AI disrupts the job landscape and colleges have trouble adjusting quickly.