Update
Okay, with All He Surveys: Volume 01 having come out last month, I've begun producing the podiobook version. Right now, there are three chapters out now, with more on the way. If you haven't signed up to the Stardrifter podcast feed, you'll want to correct that with a quickness! My process is somewhat hampered by a recent (and minor) injury, but things are steadily improving on that front. Watch for the syndicated chapters wherever you get your podcasts!
I'll be focusing on that until it's done, however, it won't be long before I start working on All He Surveys: Volume 02, which concludes the tale. The current goal right now is to get the written version out in Spring of 2023, and the audio by the end of Summer.
However that plays out, I'll be starting on writing the next novel, Behind Glass next year, just as soon as Volume 02 of AHS is done. Gotta get all this rolling along, you know? We don't get forever, only a tiny piece.
Education of the Future
In the future, "primary" education encompasses everything from what we would recognize as kindergarten-level learning, on up to that of high school. Classroom settings, homeschool settings, online (or its future equivalent), AI-taught, and even Socratic style educational practices all exist; nor is the curriculum standardized across the supernations. In the Alliance of Independent Nations, Churchspace, and the Empire, a very wide variety of primary education types and styles all exist. Primary education ends somewhere around age fifteen, though this varies somewhat from place to place. In Corporatespace, a standardized system exists that makes use of "gamified" educational content. Children that "beat the game", which is years in length, then go on to "graduate" into vocational training, or other higher forms of education. If the child was a good "player", and finished early, they may choose to start taking more advanced educational classes right away, even while rather young, or they may take time off until they are sixteen. Either way, at sixteen, all graduates must take a final exam, or they continue with the game.
Nearly all colony stations and settlements of size have the equivalent of technical and community colleges, funded through a number of different methods. Many of these are geared to produce competent workers, planners, and leaders that will fill niches within their own communities.
Overwhelmingly, certification programs have become the most widely-spread form of higher education. Rather than pursuing degrees in wide-ranging subjects, people learn particular aspects of a job individually, and gain industry-recognized certifications in those focused fields. These are certs for nearly every type of practical, hands-on sort of job. Aboard vessels in space, industry-standard certs tend to be better recognized and trusted than are degrees from colleges and schools with which the potential employer may or may not be familiar.
In some cases, a professional with a number of high-level certifications in a specific field (i.e., Engineering) can nominate one or more people to work under them as apprentices. This allows an apprentice to forego most of the usual classroom time, and just take the sit-down and practical tests for the certs. Apprentices must remain actively employed by their nominator until they have achieved moderately-high certification levels themselves, or else they cannot take their tests without making up any associated classroom time they have "missed" while being without a teacher (though, again, this education can take many forms; "classroom" is actually a generic word by this point, referring to formalized education in general).
Colleges and universities like those we have today still exist, with several leading schools having been established upon various stations and planets over the years. Preeminent are those in the bigger capital star systems, though the great old universities of Terra still have a lot of prestige.