Episode 3: Reskilling & Upskilling — Learn Long and Prosper

“You’re not college material, Rovy,” said the high school counselor to the now-head of professional and continuing education at the University of Washington. 

To be fair, Rovy admits that his counselor was probably correct at that time in his life. In the end, a non-traditional route to higher education was the answer, allowing Rovy to access higher education when he was ready. 

In this episode, Rovy Branon and Hanson Hosein are talking with guests Asha Aravindakshan and Paul Fain about just that — meeting students “where they are,” personally and professionally. 

The “traditional” path of finishing high school and going directly to college at 17 or 18, living on campus, and finishing a Bachelor’s degree at 21 or 22 is only experienced by about 20% of students in higher education.  

So how are institutions of higher education meeting students where they are and when they are ready? 

Asha Aravindakshan is the first person friends call when they want to make a career move. Early in her career, she learned the importance of identifying and articulating her own transferable skills to land jobs she loves. Asha also developed key skills in relationship building and business networking to overcome the loneliness that many job seekers experience.

Among her volunteer and advisory positions, she served on the alumni boards of both of her alma maters. This vantage, along with her own experiences, led Asha to write her debut book, Skills: The Common Denominator, to help people find fulfillment in their professional lives.

During her executive career, she streamlined business operations to maximize accountability, growth and strategic alignment of diverse organizations. Asha speaks regularly on the future of work and digital transformation. She holds a B.B.A. from The George Washington University and M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Find her on Twitter and Instagram @dcasha, on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashaa12/ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/skillsthecommondenominator. 

Paul Fain writes The Job, a newsletter about connections between education and work. He also recently helped found a new weekly publication, Work Shift, which features in-depth reporting on workforce issues.

For the last decade, Fain was a reporter and editor at  Inside Higher Ed. He oversaw the news outlet's coverage of nontraditional students, policy, and more. Fain also was the founding host of the successful podcast, The Key with Inside Higher Ed, and managed  IHE's coverage of the pandemic in 2020.  

 Before  IHE, Fain was a senior reporter at The Chronicle of Higher Education, where he covered leadership and finance for more than six years. A former staff writer for C-Ville Weekly  in Charlottesville, Va., Fain has written for The New York Times and contributed chapters for books on innovation in higher education, published by the Harvard University Press and the Stanford University Press. A graduate of the University of Delaware, he is a native of Dayton, Ohio, and currently lives in Takoma Park, Md. 

Find Paul on Twitter @paulfain and find his newsletter, The Job, at @workshiftnews. You can also contact Paul on LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-fain-5428b719/. Find his organization, OpenCampusMedia, at their website, https://www.opencampusmedia.org/ or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/opencampusmedia/. 

If you’re a student or considering going back to school to reskill, upskill, or fulfill your own curiosity, how can colleges, universities, tech schools, etc., remove boundaries and make you feel welcome? Let us know your thoughts at [email protected].  

Learn more about hosts Rovy Branon and Hanson Hosein on the University of Washington Continuum College website: https://www.continuum.uw.edu/about-us/podcast. And please share, rate, and review this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.