Ivanka Teams With Apple, IBM to Push Job-Skills Schooling

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Real Clear Politcs

The education of a Trump is elite and always expensive and explicitly directed toward the goal of a university degree.

It begins with a preparatory institution, usually a boarding school with a storied heritage stretching back two centuries and with annual tuition in the five figures. This preparation culminates in an acceptance letter from either the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania or Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

But is the pomp and splendor and expense of this kind of college always worth it? Ivanka Trump, UPenn class of 2004 and senior adviser to the president, has her doubts. In fact, as she has long argued, an overemphasis on expensive four-year degrees that often require loans can be crippling.

Hence a new public-private White House initiative complete with an ad campaign backed by Apple, IBM, and the Business Roundtable. The message, which will soon be broadcast across the country by the Ad Council and on donated air space, is simple: “Find something new.”

The goal is straightforward: Connect Americans, many of them out of a job because of the pandemic and in need of a solution now rather than later, with education and training programs that can be accessed immediately, often online, and don’t require the time or money of a bachelor’s degree.