I introduced Rob Nettleton to our audience last week when we chatted about how to ignore the stigma of being a money-conscious young person and student lines of credit.
After we wrapped up that podcast we decided to make Rob the first ever guest to record back-to-back shows because I wanted to ask him about a few things unrelated to the article that was written about him in the Globe and Mail. Foremost among them was Rob’s experience going to small school (Algonquin College) where he was student president for a year.
Tune in to hear us discuss:
- Why we both think small schools like Algonquin are a great bet going forward.
- What sort of attributes are unique to certain types of college or skilled-labour focused institutions relative to our huge “traditional style” universities.
- How a student can start at a college and earn credits towards a university degree.
- Why skilled labour is in such a great position and why I sometimes wish I love welding as much as I love reading books.
- What student politics is like – both the good and the bad.
- Why Rob ultimately chose to go to Carleton after attending Algonquin and how that whole process worked.
Personally, I think these blended college/university programs (also referred to as polytechniques in some parts of Canada) are excellent options and deserve much more consideration that they are currently getting. They are often much more responsive to market trends and focus much more on connecting with industry than traditional massive liberal arts undergraduate university faculties. Ultimately at the end of the day the best fit for a specific individual is going to be just as unique as they are when it comes to post-secondary education, so co-op programs and education partnerships might not be best for every single person, but that cross-pollination of ideas is far better for education overall than the traditional ivory tower approach.
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More Beers, More Cheers, That’s It That’s All!