During the recent American elections, politicians of all stripes could agree on one thing: every student should have the opportunity to obtain a post-secondary education. But, at the same time, not every student can study at Harvard and run a business and become a plumber – nor should they. That’s why these options exist: university, college, and apprenticeships. All of these are forms of post-secondary education – but there is a difference between them, not in terms of prestige or quality, but in terms of the way they should be taught. University is designed for predominantly academic fields – for theoretical learning from books and lectures. Apprenticeships represent the other end of the spectrum: learning-by-doing and concrete skills training. College, at least in the Canadian model, is the blending of theory and practicum. 

 

In each case the method of learning is integral to the quality of the graduate. A plumber who only had a theoretical experience of plumbing would pale in comparison to a thirty-year tenured tradesperson. A woman whose only claim of expertise is that she has spent thirty years of her life ‘thinking’ would and should be dismissed in a discussion on philosophy with a woman versed in everything from Marx to Machiavelli. College holds places for those who require a near-equal share of both – a baker should have ample experience with both the theory and the application of his craft to be truly prepared. So where should business go?

While there are some obvious fundamental skills essential to business administration – the basics of accounting, business law, and economics – the core ability needed for business is a blend of actual experience and sheer intuition. Elite business schools, including Harvard and our own Richard Ivey School of Business, implicitly admit this by basing most of their education on the ‘case method’, which simulates real-life business situations in a classroom setting. The Skolkovo Moscow School of Management, a graduate program in Russia, goes one step further, focusing almost entirely on work placement and, as they themselves describe, “learning by doing”.

 

Clearly, this does not mesh with the classical university design. But, people may say, the results don’t lie – higher job placement and salary rates for MBA graduates are well-documented to the point of being propagandized. It’s why thousands flock to business programs every year. In a self-fulfilling prophecy these like-minded individuals, these talented people will go and network and then charge out to get those prestigious internships – a form of apprenticeship, the education that they truly needed. Which of course begs the question: “what was the point of university all along?”