Is K12 Preparing Students Properly for Postsecondary Education and the Workforce?

In this episode of the TeacherCast Podcast, Jeff welcomes BloomTech CEO Austen Allred on the program to discuss how alternative education, such as online tech training programs, can be a reliable and faster path to a high-paying job. He says that education shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all, and nontraditional education can be the best option for many people—from recent high school graduates to career changers. If you are a new listener to TeacherCast, we would love to hear from you.  Please visit our Contact Page and let us know how we can help you today!

In This Episode ...

• How can K12 school districts prepare students for postsecondary education?
• What skills are needed by students who are entering postsecondary education?
  • Are students ready for this?
  
  
• What skills are employers looking for from our new graduates?
  • Are students ready for this?
  
  
• Should there be better communication between
  • K12 and Higher Education
  • K12 and the Workforce
  
  
• What are some of the features that postsecondary education must incorporate to better serve students leaving K12?
  • Flexibility - responsive, effective programs for people on any schedule (not just async and MOOCs)
  • Career-focused support that’s in line with market needs
  • Hands-on experience that mirrors on-the-job work
  • Accelerated paths to jobs
  • Accountability to graduates’ results
  
  
• How is Bloom Institute of Technology (BloomTech) supporting students as they enter their postsecondary careers?
  • Where can we learn more about BloomTech?
  
  
• What can/should K12 teachers be keeping on their minds this year as we begin a new and long school year?

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About our Guest: Austin Allred

Austen Allred is the co-founder and CEO of BloomTech. A native of Springville, Utah, Austen’s start-up journey began in 2017 with him living in his two-door Civic while participating in Y Combinator, a San Francisco-based seed accelerator. This experience became the foundation of BloomTech’s rapid growth. Before founding BloomTech, Austen was the co-founder of media platform GrassWire. He co-authored the growth hacking textbook Secret Sauce, which became a best-seller and provided him the personal seed money to build BloomTech. Austen’s disruptive ideas on the future of education, the labor market disconnect, and the opportunity of providing opportunity at-scale have been featured in: The Harvard Business Review, The Economist, WIRED, Fast Company, TechCrunch, The New York Times, among others. Austen is fluent in Russian and currently lives in San Francisco with his wife and two kids.

Links of Interest

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