What we teach. What we need.

Complex issue. This Op-Ed piece makes an argument for those tangibles/intangibles that seem to be the hallmark of our famously innovative business start-up successes.

If start-up activity is the true engine of job creation in America, one thing is clear: our current educational system is acting as the brakes. Simply put, from kindergarten through undergraduate and grad school, you learn very few skills or attitudes that would ever help you start a business. Skills like sales, networking, creativity and comfort with failure.

He says our system is good for preparing graduates for "regulated fields" like doctors, lawyers, and engineers, but not for entrepeneurs - skills he believes all graduates need in the job market; reminding us that

AFTER all, there is not one job market in America, but two. The formal market we always hear about — jobs that get filled through cold résumé submissions in reply to posted ads — accounts for only about 20 percent of jobs.

The other 80 percent get filled in the informal job market. Any employer knows how the informal job market works: you need a position filled, so you ask your friends, colleagues and current employees if they know anyone who would do a good job.

In this informal job market, the academic requirements listed in job ads tend to be highly negotiable, and far less important than real-world results and the enthusiasm of the personal referral.

Classroom skills may put you at an advantage in the formal market, but in the informal market, street-smart skills and real-world networking are infinitely more important. 

 Of course, his slant in this essay is developing persons to drive "the engine of job creation"; perhaps aiming a little higher than our current expectations of job readiness. But I like it.