Description: This class is about building a strong, socially responsible economy; in this video Prof. Kochan explains the course and its motivations.
Instructor: Tom Kochan
We can't think of a more interesting and exciting time to launch this course. Yes, there are challenges that you and your peers will face because my baby boom generation didn't do a great job of keeping our policies and practices up to date with the changing economy and the changing workforce. But at the same time, we're in an extremely interesting era of innovation.
Around the world we're seeing new organizations getting formed using crowd sourcing and other modern techniques, organizations we couldn't even have imagined several years ago. There are new worker advocacy organizations coming along that will help empower you to find your way in the labor market. There are new apps that allow you to navigate this labor market and to figure out where the good jobs are and distinguish between good and bad employers. And then there are courses like this exploding all around our universities here in the United States and in other countries.
We rise and fall on the strength of our middle class--
These online courses allow you to gain access to some of the world's leading experts in your particular field. The role of the corporation in the US has changed quite a bit. So it's time to really bring all of this together and see if we can't help really shape the future of work. We're going to introduce you to lots of companies that are breaking new ground.
In every industry we can find great companies that are doing well financially, serving their customers well, focused on a mission that is really important for society and providing good jobs. One of the things we want to do is to highlight those and to learn more about your own experiences with companies and organizations like this. And so as we go along, we're going to learn from your experiences, and you're going to meet a whole set of peers who have good jobs and maybe not such good jobs, some mentors who are ready to work with you to provide advice, and all of that will be a learning process together.
And let me say a word about another piece of this course that I'm especially excited about. In every week, we're going to have something called the personal development corner. This is designed to provide you with a path forward so that you can be empowered to take control of your own career.
So there'll be readings and videos and exercises and assignments that allow you to understand what are some of your capabilities, what are some of your interests, what jobs might fit well with your background, and where you would like to go with your own career; and how will you develop your own personal career plan to make sure that you are ready to take advantage of the opportunities that are out there.
So let's start exploring this evolving and interesting world of work. Let's do it with our eyes open. Let's understand and learn from our history about what worked in the past, what's broken, what needs to be fixed, and why. And then let's see if together we can't shape the future of work for your generation. So let's get started.