Work in action: Bright minds and hardworking hands won’t continue to comply with the status quo. In a world of self-branding, lifestreaming, and collaboration, youthful jobseekers who want meaningful training should recognize that such training cannot only be skill-based or tool-based. An older form of contractual employment, which has been all but eviscerated in the industrial world, is now poised to make a comeback: the apprenticeship.
Historically, apprenticeships enabled the job-seeking to gain skills and build relationships that opened up access to credit down the road. Such relationship-building is paramount in today’s economy. Forward-looking firms have started to catch on, while innovators like those at apprent.is recognize this, and have created a resource for curious, enthusiastic twenty-somethings can pair up with other talented people with disruptive mentalities in a variety of fields, from design to international development to incubators for healthcare startups.
Speaking from Experience: Always burdened with more work than I could ever do, I have always thought about hiring an apprentice or assistant to help with my sundry companies. Fortunately I have fortuitous access to the local undergraduate community in Greater Boston. Over the years, I have been constantly amazed at the low cost and high output of those we’ve employed within the cognitive surplus of Cambridge (aside: particularly compared to that experiment in outsourcing from three years ago). But why should I have unique access to such amazing help? It’s time for someone to build a formal online marketplace for to connect growing businesses with experience-seeking undergraduates. Who would you rather hire as your assistant: Anup in Bangalore or Kerry at Harvard? Their time wholesales at $12-15/hr and retails at $20/hr, but I can assure you their output is far from equal.