Every generation witnesses a skill in demise. What was once highlighted, underlined, and underlined again on a resume is now sliding further down the page.
Although academic skills remain important, they are not sufficient to foster thoughtful, productive, and engaged citizens. Young people everywhere need to develop a greater breadth of skills to evaluate and apply knowledge in ways that meet the new demands of our changing social and economic landscape.
Skills like communication, teamwork, critical thinking, and flexibility have always been important for work and life, but they will be even more crucial for future generations.
Rapid advances in technology are transforming the world of work, allowing us to be more connected than ever before. Combining this with complex global challenges such as climate change and health epidemics, creates a call for leaders and citizens who are able to collaborate with diverse groups to solve problems.
Despite all of this, the route to access Higher Education, and many of the programmes offered in these Institutions, has changed little to address this. Most HE Institutions still use school exam results, or SAT scores in the US, to decide who should be offered a place. But these tests say little if anything about whether a student possesses the cognitive skills and competencies needed to thrive post college or University. Worse than that, schools focus heavily on ensuring that classroom instruction and teaching is delivered to enhance their student’s performance in those tests, rather than developing the qualities needed to thrive in the future.
Global Education Specialists are currently working with a partner on a project to try to address one aspect of this much greater problem, but it requires a wave of change to truly start to address this.
I would love to hear your thoughts and views or hear about anything you may be doing to address this issue. Please post your thoughts below or get in touch.