The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday on a shift in teaching methods by M.B.A. programs:

Business schools are moving away from the case-study method—the long-held standard of business education—and asking students to resolve actual corporate dilemmas in real time.

This focus on "real life" education appears to mirror the growing awareness by lawmakers here in Washington and across the country of the need for higher education that gives students the skills and knowledge to be job-ready when they graduate.

Washington legislators have spent a considerable amount of time on preparing students for jobs that are and will be available here – for example, in computer science and manufacturing:

• The aerospace tax incentives bill that passed in late 2013 included funding for aerospace workforce education and training (see our Policy Brief here). The need for skilled workers specifically in aerospace and in manufacturing generally is reaching a crisis point. We've written about it here.
• In 2015 lawmakers passed a bill promoting computer science education in public schools. Code.org, which promotes computer science learning, estimates there are almost 22,000 computing jobs currently open in Washington state, and not nearly enough in-state computer science graduates to fill those slots.

Doing a better job of educating students in areas where they're more likely to find employment post-graduation should be a top priority for policymakers at all levels. It would certainly give more teachers the ability to affirmatively answer that age-old question: "Am I ever going to use this in real life?"