Two years ago, Learning Economy envisioned education as the new gold standard—a market economy, built on the quantified value of learning and skills, that could solve some of our toughest challenges in education and employment.
Since then, after conducting research, running pilots, and convening with global leaders in education and work, our mission has evolved. In 2020 we begin a decade journey to bring quality education and jobs to every human who wants it.
Education in 2020
Today, the global supply chain of education is broken, fragmented into thousands upon thousands of disconnected stakeholders. As learning & workplace data becomes further disconnected, and individual learner data becomes increasingly inaccessible, skills & opportunity gaps grow, which makes investments into solutions to these challenges guesswork. Any stakeholders who try to solve these challenges are siloed, often duplicating efforts instead of collaborating.
Enter, Learning Economy Foundation.
A solution to these mounting, entangled challenges, Learning Economy Foundation is a US-based not-for-profit organization with a mission:
to accelerate the world toward 22nd-century-ready education and employment infrastructures, vigilantly protect learner and employee equity, and connect, curate, and scale the fragmented ecosystem of stakeholders into a unified hub of innovation.
Why a Not-for-Profit?
After all of this time, we discovered a deep need for a neutral convener within the education ecosystem space. The only way to create a public good ecosystem is as a not-for-profit that is transparent and can act as a neutral space for competitive interests to align.
Other global organizations in this space, such as IBM and Salesforce, could serve as this convener, but as for-profit organizations, their incentives are misaligned. They can either act neutrally at the cost of their shareholders, or act for the benefit of shareholders at the cost of a neutral ecosystem.
The only way to create a truly student and employee-centered Internet of Education is as a not-for-profit. Through not-for-profit status, we gain the ability to work with everyone and elevate all stakeholders, instead of competing alongside them.
In the end, this is about public infrastructure for the good of students and employees. In the same way a government takes steps to protect its citizens and economy, Learning Economy Foundation will protect and steward the global Learning Economy.
Decade Resolution
Learning Economy’s decade resolution: to solve Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education (for all) and Goal 8: Decent Work (for all) by the 2030 United Nations mandate.
Our mission, programs, and research are directly aimed at this objective. In 2020, we will launch labs, such as the Colorado Education Work Lab, to stand up a MVP universal learner and education ecosystem on a district and state-wide level, to test and prove each layer of the Internet of Education.
We envision a future where the Internet of Education empowers every person on Earth, regardless of their background, upbringing, or financial status, to be educated and find a career that makes them happy and abundant. We envision a future where education backs a knowledge economy that empowers global human flourishing.
