After interacting with businesspeople and students while working for an libertarian nonprofit, Praxis founder Isaac Morehouse noticed a skills gap between recently graduated college students and employers. Having been homeschooled himself and then exposed to a university-education, Morehouse noticed the disparity in skills taught and skills demanded by the professional world, as well as the frustration faced by students who expected a job upon graduation. This led Morehouse to believe that most of the perceived value of a college degree comes from its value as a signaling mechanism, showing employers that a candidate is superior to those without the signal. Employers told Morehouse that a lack of work experience was the primary reason they did not hire candidates with college degrees. Morehouse founded Praxis in 2013 as an alternative signal for employers and students, combining traditional educational components with work experience.
Description
Praxis places participants with business partners to work 30 hours per week as an employee. Participants then complete 10 hours per week's worth of coursework designed by professors contracted with Praxis. The academic and non-academic subjects in the curriculum is designed to instill a level of entrepreneurial thinking in the participants, and to challenge them to think broadly about complex questions. The combination of hands-on work experience, technical education in the curriculum, and a liberal arts education is designed to train participants to work practically and to be thinkers. Praxis also features resume and writing workshops, public speaking seminars, professional networking opportunities and a variety of professional development projects, both within the business partner context and within the broader scope of the program. Motivated by the belief that college costs are disproportionately high relative to the payoff of a degree, Morehouse designed the program to give participants "the best of a college education and real-world work experience." The program is additionally structured as to provide low-cost, high-quality labor to small businesses and startups.
Curriculum
The Praxis curriculum covers economics, history, entrepreneurship, and technology. The curriculum includes an additional portfolio project and hard skills module, which includes resume writing skills, writing development, interview skills, and public speaking skills. Each subject in the Praxis curriculum is designed to prepare participants to be entrepreneurs. A notable feature of the Praxis curriculum is that participants are encouraged to engage directly with the material, and to challenge material they find superfluous, and replace it with similar material deemed more useful by participants.
