Last-Mile Training

Job training to bridge between school and first job.

2017: Ryan Craig on The ‘last mile’ in education and training

The concept of the last mile — the final leg of the connection to each home — originated in telecom, but is now a primary focus for supply chain management and e-commerce, in particular

The general principle applicable to all contexts is that the last mile is the most difficult and expensive to build, but equally the most valuable: Dominating the last mile can provide a nearly unassailable competitive position

We are now seeing the emergence of the last-mile phenomenon in an unlikely setting: education

I. The hiring process has changed drastically

filter applicants based on a keyword match.

What are Applicant Tracking Systems matching to? Increasingly, it’s technical skills. Over the past decade, technical skills have come to outnumber cognitive and non-cognitive skills combined in job descriptions across nearly all industries

The prevalence of technical skills in job descriptions is particularly acute for entry-level positions, many of which now involve utilizing SaaS platforms to manage functions like supply chain, sales, marketing, customer service, finance, IT and HR

II. Students really, really care about getting a good first job

III. Colleges and universities have not adjusted

This growing gap — often referred to as the skills gap — has given rise to the emergence of last-mile training providers. These providers are focused on exactly the technical skills employers need (as demonstrated in job descriptions), but which colleges and universities don’t teach. Coding is the most obvious example

my firm has already made investments in last-mile training providers in sales, medical devices and insurance.

Viewing higher education through a 2×2 matrix, where the X axis shows cost to the student (paid or free) and the Y axis shows outcomes (no guarantee or some guaranteed outcome)

traditional colleges and universities have always been and continue to sit in the bottom-left quadrant: pay your money upfront for no guaranteed outcome.

But given employer demand for the technical skills they are imparting to students, last-mile training providers are able to improve upon this value proposition