Online education

在線教育

Patient learning

耐心學(xué)習(xí)

SAN FRANCISCO

舊金山

A new kind of online school wants to teach nursing, and more

一種新型的在線學(xué)校想要教授護(hù)理課程以及之外的課程

“I have been this close to buying a nursing school.” This is not a sentence you expect to hear from a startup founder. Nursing seems a world away from the hightech whizziness of Silicon Valley. And, to use a venture-capital cliché, it does not scale easily. Austen Allred, boss of Lambda School, sees things di?erently. His two year-old ?rm matches labour supply and demand by providing fast, e?cient training to potential employees. It o?ers ?ve online courses that prepare candidates to write software at technology ?rms. Training nurses, more of which are sorely needed to care for America’s ageing population, is not an illogical next step—especially when many nursing schools have to turn people away.

“我就差這么一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)就能買下一所護(hù)理學(xué)校。這句話并不是你期望從創(chuàng)業(yè)者那里聽到的。護(hù)理似乎很難與硅谷的高科技奇才扯上關(guān)系。而且，用風(fēng)險(xiǎn)資本的陳詞濫調(diào)來(lái)說(shuō)，這一行業(yè)不并不容易擴(kuò)大規(guī)模。Lambda學(xué)校的校長(zhǎng)奧斯丁·奧爾雷德對(duì)此有不同的看法。他成立兩年的公司通過(guò)為潛在員工提供快速、有效的培訓(xùn)來(lái)滿足勞動(dòng)力需求市場(chǎng)。它提供五門在線課程，為求職者在科技公司編寫軟件做準(zhǔn)備。培訓(xùn)護(hù)士，尤其是在需要大量的護(hù)士來(lái)照顧美國(guó)的老年人的背景下，并不是不合邏輯的一步棋，尤其是當(dāng)許多護(hù)理學(xué)校不得不將人們拒之門外的時(shí)代背景下。

詞匯

Whizziness/ whizzy +? -ness；whizzy/技術(shù)先進(jìn)的，技術(shù)上創(chuàng)新的，高技術(shù)的；

Cliché/[ 'kli??e?] 陳詞濫調(diào)，

Sorely/疼痛地；非常；劇烈地

Instead of responding to the threat of joblessness posed by automation with a universal basic income, Mr Allred wants to help people to switch jobs faster. Unlike most online courses, Lambda does not charge students up front to attend (though admissions are competitive) and online tuition is live and interactive, not recorded. Full-time students attend for nine months, Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm San Francisco time. Latecomers risk falling behind. In most recent classes, 85% of students who began a course ?nished it.

奧爾雷德希望幫助人們更快地轉(zhuǎn)換工作，而不是用全民基本收入（改善）來(lái)應(yīng)對(duì)自動(dòng)化帶來(lái)的失業(yè)威脅。與大多數(shù)在線課程不同，Lambda不收取學(xué)生的學(xué)費(fèi)(盡管入學(xué)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)激烈)，而且在線學(xué)費(fèi)是實(shí)時(shí)互動(dòng)的，沒(méi)有記錄。全日制學(xué)生學(xué)習(xí)九個(gè)月，周一至周五，舊金山時(shí)間上午8點(diǎn)至下午5點(diǎn)。遲到者有落后的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。在最近的課程中，85%的學(xué)生在接觸課程后順利成了課程。

The school only starts getting paid back for its services after its students have landed a job which pays them more than $50,000 a year, something Lambda expends signi?cant energy to help them do. Around 70% of those enrolled do so within six months of graduation. Lambda then gets a cut of about a sixth of their income for the next two years, until they have paid about $30,000. (Or they can pay $20,000 up front.)

學(xué)校只有在學(xué)生找到一份年薪超過(guò)5萬(wàn)美元的工作后才會(huì)開始收回服務(wù)費(fèi)用，Lambda為此花費(fèi)了大量精力。大約70%的學(xué)生在畢業(yè)后6個(gè)月內(nèi)完成了學(xué)業(yè)。然后Lambda在接下來(lái)的兩年里從他們收入的六分之一中抽取，直到他們支付了大約3萬(wàn)美元。(或者他們可以預(yù)付2萬(wàn)美元。)

The ?rm devotes about a third of its time and resources to ?nding jobs for its graduates, an unusually high share. Another third goes to recruiting students and the rest to teaching. Courses are created with employers’ requirements in mind. For its web-development programme, the list given to Lambda by companies runs to 280 items. Unlike coding, nursing cannot be taught entirely over the internet, so Lambda wants to co-operate with nursing schools across America that could provide the necessary hands-on instruction.

該公司將三分之一的時(shí)間和資源用于為畢業(yè)生找工作，這一比例高得異乎尋常。另外三分之一用于招生，其余用于教學(xué)。課程是根據(jù)雇主的要求設(shè)計(jì)的。對(duì)于它的網(wǎng)絡(luò)開發(fā)項(xiàng)目，公司給Lambda的列表有280個(gè)項(xiàng)目。與編程不同，護(hù)理學(xué)科不能完全在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上教授，因此Lambda希望與全美的護(hù)理學(xué)校合作，提供必要的實(shí)踐教學(xué)。

After nursing, Lambda plans to work its way down the list of professions with the biggest job shortages. It is also examining the problem from the other side, identifying available jobs that require skills akin to those of victims of automation—truckers displaced by self-driving lorries or callcentre workers replaced by robocalls.

在處理完護(hù)理學(xué)學(xué)院培訓(xùn)問(wèn)題后，Lambda計(jì)劃在就業(yè)短缺最嚴(yán)重的職業(yè)名單上繼續(xù)開拓。它還在從另一個(gè)方面研究這個(gè)問(wèn)題，找出需要類似于自動(dòng)駕駛卡車司機(jī)或呼叫中心工作人員技能的工作，這些人被自動(dòng)駕駛卡車取代，呼叫中心工作人員被機(jī)器人電話取代。

詞匯

Akin/類似的；同類的

Lambda’s quirks set it apart in Silicon Valley, but Mr Allred is not the ?rst to recognise the value of work-focused education and training. Germany is famed for its widespread vocational training and apprenticeships. Closer to California, the University of Waterloo, a technologyoriented Canadian institution, has had gainful employment within the ?eld of study as one of its core goals since it was founded 62 years ago. Students seeking an internship can enroll in a special scheme which matches them with ?rms. Norah McRae, who runs the programme, says that most universities spend little time ?nding work for the graduates, or teaching the skills they need to prosper in the job market. Too often students are treated as cash cows to be milked for research funding.

Lambda的怪癖讓它在硅谷脫穎而出，但奧爾雷德并不是第一個(gè)認(rèn)識(shí)到以工作為重點(diǎn)的教育和培訓(xùn)的價(jià)值的人。德國(guó)以其廣泛的職業(yè)培訓(xùn)和學(xué)徒制度而聞名。和加利福利亞相仿，加拿大的一所技術(shù)導(dǎo)向型大學(xué)——滑鐵盧大學(xué)，自62年成立以來(lái)，他們核心目標(biāo)之一便是在學(xué)習(xí)領(lǐng)域找到利潤(rùn)可觀的工作。尋求實(shí)習(xí)的學(xué)生可以參加一項(xiàng)特殊的計(jì)劃，該計(jì)劃將他們與公司們適配起來(lái)。負(fù)責(zé)該項(xiàng)目的諾拉?麥克雷(Norah McRae)表示，大多數(shù)大學(xué)很少花時(shí)間為畢業(yè)生找工作，也很少收到那些能使得他們?cè)谌瞬攀袌?chǎng)上鶴立雞群的技能。經(jīng)常的，學(xué)生被當(dāng)作搖錢樹，借以科研經(jīng)費(fèi)為由，從他們身上榨取利益。

詞匯

Quirk/怪癖

Apprenticeships/ ?學(xué)徒，學(xué)徒制

Gainful/唯利是圖的；有利益的

But Ms McRae is also concerned that programmes like Lambda School, though well-meaning, risk undermining existing educational institutions by o?ering a quicker route to work. The kind of intense optimisation which Lambda espouses cannot, she worries, replace conventional learning, which strives to create not just capable workers but rounded individuals.

但麥克雷也擔(dān)心，像Lambda School這樣的項(xiàng)目，雖然本意是好的，但提供了一條更快捷的工作路線，可能會(huì)破壞現(xiàn)有的教育機(jī)構(gòu)。她擔(dān)心，Lambda所支持的那種強(qiáng)烈的優(yōu)化不能取代傳統(tǒng)的學(xué)習(xí)，后者不僅致力于培養(yǎng)有能力的員工，還致力于培養(yǎng)全面發(fā)展的個(gè)人。

Such fears presuppose that Lambda can succeed beyond even Mr Allred’s wildest dreams—or those of the venture capitalists who pumped $30m into the ?rm in January, valuing it at $150m. Student numbers, and so upfront costs, are growing faster than revenues. If Lambda can turn a pro?t by o?ering people a stab at a decent job, that would be a ?ne lesson in capitalism.

這種擔(dān)心的前提是，Lambda的成功甚至超過(guò)了奧爾雷德先生最瘋狂的夢(mèng)想——或者那些1月份向該公司注資3000萬(wàn)美元、估值1.5億美元的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資家的夢(mèng)想。學(xué)生人數(shù)以及前期成本的增長(zhǎng)速度超過(guò)了收入的增長(zhǎng)速度。如果Lambda能夠通過(guò)為人們提供一份體面的工作來(lái)盈利，這將為資本主義上了很好一課。