Workplace Readiness

As you may have noticed in my last post, I shared a presentation with the faculty at my school as an inservice session on Friday. Since issues of workplace readiness and 21st century skills our students will need are very much on my mind, I shared the following thoughts with my colleagues about necessary skills for which we should be preparing our students:

21^st Century Skills for Students

 

• Core curricular basics of reading, writing, math skills, etc. are more important than ever
• These skills are especially important for our students to prepare them to be effective in the 21^st century work place (NOTE: This is based on reading of such volumes as The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, a review of the Workplace Readiness report and its summary at http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=193700630, and conversations I’ve had with leaders in technology and business:
• These skills include:
• Critical thinking – effective analysis of the information which is today available through a variety of sources and with which each of us is bombarded
• Collaboration – working effectively to complete projects not only with people in a classroom or office, but with people across the country, or even across the world
• Effective written and oral communication skills
• Attitude – taking the responsibility to be a life-long learner to improve skills and aptitudes. Fewer companies are offering this training today as part of their vocational preparation
• Professionalism/Work Ethic – our students will be competing in the job market not only with their countrymen, but because of the influence of technology, they will also be competing with students and workers around the globe.

My encouragement is that we all start looking at ways in which we may better prepare students for their futures by providing practical experience in building this skills.

In addition, Wesley Fryer has some additional insights about the 21st century workplace that may be both helpful and thought-provoking. While these thoughts do not come from a specifically Christian perspective, they are useful as we consider the future of our schools and the quality Christian education we seek to provide.