ASU+GSV Summit 2022: Jeff Maggioncalda on new skills as a means to new careers

Thought leaders share ideas with WorkingNation Overheard at the ASU+GSV Summit 2022
-

The number of people who are looking to switch their career paths is on the rise, according to Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO, Coursera – which is partnered with universities and companies to give learners access to those skills.

WorkingNation sat down with Maggioncalda at the ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego.

“We’re starting to see a huge trend towards further embrace of online learning by government agencies and not just in the U.S., but around the world. In the U.S., and also in Europe, the number of individuals who are deciding ‘I want a new career’ and realizing that there are good-paying jobs, if only they can get new skills is going up. The Great Resignation is certainly a phenomenon that we’ve been observing.”

Maggioncalda continues, “I like to call it the Great Upgrade – ‘I want to upgrade my skills. I want to upgrade my career. I want to upgrade my life.’  People are definitely looking for more job flexibility. A lot of what that means is remote work and they’re looking for better pay.”

Higher education needs to be better aligned with employers to make sure people have the skills needed for available jobs, says Maggioncalda. But he notes that community colleges, state universities, and labor departments at the state level are moving to improve the learning pipeline.

Learn more about Coursera.

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.