It’s a natural function of the economy to move through periods of booms and busts. When the economy falters, people commonly turn to education as a means to improve their skillsets. And, in the process, set themselves up for greater success when the economy recovers. As we enter into a period of economic uncertainty, continuous education again gains in importance, presenting two important opportunities: One for those seeking skills to accelerate their careers and another for educational institutions.
Interestingly, Stanford professor and associate chair for education in the computer science department, Mehran Sahami, has studied the parallels between the US economy and the number of bachelor degrees achieved in computer science. He’s found that the two are closely aligned, growing and declining in relative sync with one another. (Note that degrees achieved lag economic indicators due to the time required to declare and achieve a B.S.)