Ryan Craig

Los Angeles

Author and Writer at Freelance

Senior Contributor at Forbes

Achieve Partners, author Apprentice Nation, A New U, College Disrupted, https://t.co/TMmqfiKaM5 #skillsgap #lastmiletraining #hiretraindeploy #apprenticeship

Articles

The Wreck Of The Class Of 2025

2 weeks ago | forbes.com | Ryan Craig

50 years ago, Canadian folk singer Gordon Lightfoot wrote and recorded the best artistic depiction of a disaster in progress. After learning of the loss of the iron ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior and the deaths of all 29 crew members from Newsweek, Gord lifted passages from the article and put them to a dreamy dirge: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Sinking shipgettyWe’re in the midst of another disaster in progress.
Why Is Housing So Expensive? It All Comes Back To Workforce

4 weeks ago | forbes.com | Ryan Craig

At a recent Achieve team dinner, the discussion turned to someone’s friend, a recent business school graduate, who was raising a search fund in a bid to acquire multiple heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) installation and maintenance businesses. Oddly, several colleagues also knew other recent MBAs who were attempting similar “HVAC rollups.”Coincidence? An HVAC rollup is a long way from the well-traveled B-school path of joining an investment bank or consulting firm.
AI Is About To Make Us Redesign Education Around Work

1 month ago | flipboard.com | Ryan Craig

"Honey Boo Boo" Is A 19-Year-Old College Student Now, And Here's What She Looks Like TodayI feel ancient now. She went viral for her hilarious one-liners (as seen above) on Season 5 of the TLC reality television show Toddlers & Tiaras. Then her time on Toddlers & Tiaras landed her a spin-off show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo alongside her mother June "Mama June" Shannon, and sisters Lauryn …
AI Is About To Make Us Redesign Education Around Work

1 month ago | forbes.com | Ryan Craig

My first decent job was as a waiter at Oliver’s Bakery Restaurant in Toronto. I learned a lot at Oliver’s. I learned that every Saturday at 7 a.m., blue haired Lois would sit at her favorite table and expect a cup of freshly brewed coffee + blueberry muffin straight from the oven.
America’s Factory Era Isn’t Coming Back. Where the Jobs of the Future Really Are.

2 months ago | barrons.com | Ryan Craig

About the author: Ryan Craig is Managing Director at Achieve Partners, a private-equity firm investing in the future of learning and earning, and author of Apprentice Nation: How the “Earn and Learn” Alternative to Higher Education Will Create a Stronger and Fairer America. If the market reaction means anything, President Donald Trump’s trade policy may not be playing out as he expected. That is almost certainly the case when it comes to his stated goal to bring back lost manufacturing jobs.
Calculating The Return On Investment From College

2 months ago | forbes.com | Ryan Craig

In the great debate over the return on investment (ROI) from college, no organization looms as large as Georgetown’s Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW). CEW got into the ROI business in 2011 report with its report on The College Payoff, which calculated a $1M “college premium” based on the fact that college graduates have lifetime earnings of $2.3M while high school graduates earn $1M less.
How Public Schools Can Survive And Thrive In An Era Of School Choice

Mar 21, 2025 | forbes.com | Ryan Craig

Public schools have been facing major enrollment and – thanks to state per-pupil funding – revenue challenges. Covid closures led to dramatic drops in the largest districts. Add in low birth rates and unaffordable housing and the exodus of students has left many urban districts practically unrecognizable. Los Angeles Unified currently enrolls just over 400,000 students, down by nearly half in 20 years.
Why America Has A Shortage Of Air Traffic Controllers

Mar 7, 2025 | flipboard.com | Ryan Craig

T here were less than four days to go until Donald Trump was sworn into office for a second time. In those final days of the presidential transition, …
Why America Has A Shortage Of Air Traffic Controllers

Mar 7, 2025 | forbes.com | Ryan Craig

Since late January, we’ve seen several serious incidents involving commercial aircraft including the Washington DC collision of an American Airlines plane and military helicopter that killed 67 and has been linked to a shortage of air traffic controllers on duty. Air traffic controllers (ATCs) have a big job: making sure planes don’t hit each other, helicopters, or anything else. So it’s imperative that we have enough.
The Tragedy Of How Training Throttled Trade

Feb 21, 2025 | forbes.com | Ryan Craig

In college, my roommate Dave and I took an economics course in international trade and learned that countries with comparative advantages in producing different products were always better off from trade.