Five Ways to Better Prepare Students for Careers

What are the most important skills that students need to prepare for the 21st Century workforce? More importantly, how can educators help kids gain these competencies? EducationWorld went straight to the experts to gather some best practices. Our panel included: Heather M. Beaven, CEO of The Florida Endowment Foundation for Florida's Graduates Sean Marder, Associate Marketing Manager of CRCC Asia Ltd. Andrew Rothstein, Chief Academic Officer of the National Academy Foundation Karen Collias, an educational consultant who specializes in STEM curriculum Here is the advice they shared: 1. Encourage Teamwork One of the biggest things that students today need to succeed at work is the ability to work as a team. They need to understand how to communicate, compromise and share credit so that they can be a valuable contributing member to projects. This can be taught in school by encouraging teamwork on some projects and assignments. Working in silos is counterproductive for adulthood. Nearly all jobs now are a team effort. Employers want people who understand how to manage a project, how to deliver a product on time and on budget, and how to work in teams with little or no oversight. Schools undermine that when they teach that working with your neighbor is cheating, said Beaven. 2. Be Future-Focused In many ways, real life begins at graduation for students -- they begin to put their knowledge into use and manage their own finances and life plans. So schools should focus not just on whether students have learned material, but where it will take students later. Will they be a financial, career and personal success because of what they learned? And when students ask, Will I ever even use this in real life? have an answer -- and an example of why they will. Right now our schools measure knowledge gain from one year to the next. Conversely, students (even really good ones) come to school as a means to an end. It is a stepping stone to their life goals. We need to bring those two values together. In fact, schools will never realize the full power of their influence on the economic health of our nation until they start measuring post-graduation success, explained Beaven.

3. Teach Complex Thinking Skills In the workplace, its not just about getting to the right end, but getting there by the best path. This is something that can be reinforced in high school by giving students context for decision-making and solving problems. [Jobs in the modern workplace] require innovation, creativity, and the ability to look at a task and not only see the outcome, but also imagine different ways to achieve it. This is why I really like international affairs, politics and even complex math, said Marder, who is a recent graduate. 4. Prep for College and Career Although college is extremely important to many careers, its not for everyone or every career. For that reason, schools need to offer courses that will prepare students for wherever they are going in life -- and that means offering both college and career preparation. Further, kids need life skills like civics knowledge and the ability to balance a checkbook. There needs to be a range of educational options for students because of the great diversity in both the population and the workplace. Career academies and more traditional vocational education have a big role to play in preparing the next generation of workers, said Rothstein. 5. Round Out the Curriculum There is no one magic solution that will prepare students today for tomorrows workforce, but giving them a well-rounded education including arts; Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM); history and communications courses can help. STEM is integral to solving practical problems, but STEM alone is not enough. Music and the arts encourage creativity and innovation while underlining self-discipline and providing individual insights into science and math. History informs us of the struggles and successes of past innovators. Communication helps us ask questions, customize our learning, and spark our passions, said Collias.

Tomorrows Workforce: What Students Need

Young people in school today will be joining the workforce tomorrow. But are they being prepared for success in the 21st Century work environment? Education World asked experts to weigh in and identify the most important skills that students will need. Heres what we learned. Missing Links When asked if students are missing skills for the workforce, we heard a resounding yes. Students today learn academic core subjects, which are useful. But they arent gaining all the knowledge they need to seamlessly integrate into the office environment. For instance, not all students have the right computer skills. As technology has become pervasive in the classroom and the workplace, solid technology skills are essential for every student. Teaching digital literacy skills ultimately falls upon educators. Schools need to go beyond the three Rs to improve college and career readiness with technical skills, said Ray Kelly, CEO, Certiport (www.certiport.com), a certification testing company. Beyond that, students need to be ready to meet specific employer needs. Too often, high school students do not demonstrate workplace habits that employers prioritize, including reliability, punctuality, customer service and high-quality task completion, said Andrew Rothstein, Chief Academic Officer of the National Academy Foundation (www.naf.org). There are also frequent issues with written and presentation skills that are appropriate in a business context. Teamwork and problem solving are the new constants. Indeed, teamwork is a very importantand often absentskill among students entering the workforce. Students need to learn how to work well with otherscooperative learning, working in groups. Students need to be able to think out of the box and be creative. They need to find different ways to offer solutions, said Marilyn CurtainPhillips, a high school math teacher and college professor. STEM Knowledge Fortunately, STEM (thats short for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) instruction offers some of the keys that will allow students to unlock workplace success. Clearly, technology, science, engineering and mathematics are and will be the drivers of innovation. Innovation is vital to the countrys economic growth and will be getting major investments from employers and the government. For students preparing for jobs and careers, employability and earnings will be increasingly tied to STEM knowledge, including the ability to adapt as the pace of discovery accelerates, said Rothstein.

Kelly added that students need familiarity with common applications such as Microsoft Office, as well as Web literacy skills, to succeed in modern jobs. Life Skills Key to succeeding in the workplace is the ability to keep personal matters in order. Students need to be able to manage their lives and function as responsible members of society. In particular, managing finances is a must. I think that many students are missing consumer mathematics skills, such as balancing a checkbook, filling out a tax return, budgeting, etc., said Curtain-Phillips. Dealing With Failure Modern culture has taken a cant-fail approach to education and raising children. In a misguided attempt to increase kids confidence, some parents go so far as letting their kids always win at board games. But that doesnt help them in the real world, experts say. In the global knowledge economy, failure is an accepted part of doing business. Think about ideas and products that changed the world the pathways to these successes are strewn with failures. Each failure offered a priceless opportunity for learning, said Karen Collias, an educational consultant. Kids today are afraid to fail. This fear saps their creativity and robs them of experiencing the true joy of learning and doing. In the 21st Century, learning by simply being told (declarative knowledge) is no longer sufficient. Our students need to apply what they know to new situations (procedural knowledge). Effective Communication Finally, students need to be able to effectively communicate with their peers via modern methods. Email is often used in business communications, and work emails are held to a much higher standard than the Facebook updates and text messaging kids are already doing. An email documents ideas, relationships and process, so it is crucial to have the writing skills for clear, concise and appropriate communication. Also, because more and more work is done in teams made up of people from throughout the worldface-to-face and virtualculturally sensitive communication reflecting global awareness takes on a greater importance than ever before, said Collias.