Reflecting back to an earlier time when I sat in front of the careers advisor at college, I remember expressing that I wanted to be involved in education but didn’t have a specific job in mind. One of my first jobs was at Sydney Girls High School, and then, after completing a Sports Science degree I took up a position managing a fitness and health centre, educating clients about their physical health through the various programs we ran. From there I took up a lecturing position at a Japanese university and now I’m involved in the education sector at CCSC.
Thinking about the world our students will enter I wonder how well we can prepare them for a future job market where many of the jobs they will be applying for don’t exist yet! That might seem a little daunting but not when you consider 10 years ago occupations like ‘social media manager’ or ‘mobile app developer’ would have seemed like imaginary job titles.
All being considered though, the education system has to give young people the necessary skills to adapt. Literacy, numeracy and scientific knowledge will always be critical, but when managers from some of the world’s leading companies were questioned about other skills on their top ten list, they stated complex problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and emotional intelligence as being necessary.
Experts Robinson and Gamwell (Leading Creative Organisations – http://www.petergamwell.com/site/) agree our education system must shift to a student-centred, practical model of learning.
Taking on projects of interest sparks a passion in students for self-directed learning and creates opportunities for creativity and problem-solving – skills necessary in changing times and the skills we encourage at CCSC.
Leave a Reply