Career Readiness
By Ann Ifekwuniqwe – Instructional Supervisor, Career Pathways
The workforce is changing so rapidly, educators are currently preparing students to hold jobs that do not yet exist. Just five years from now, the young adults who are currently in our classrooms will be working in fields we have yet to envision.
For example, in the last few months, as hundreds of thousands of workers in “conventional” jobs were laid off, companies that specialize in emerging green technologies have been quietly expanding. “Obama’s energy plan calls for five million new jobs in the low-carbon and alternative energy sector. That would mean creating 20 new General Motors-size companies, each employing 250,000 people.” (Wired Magazine, November 2008)
How can educators best prepare students for the challenges of the future? How can we equip students with the knowledge and skills they will need to compete in a marketplace that is currently reinventing itself – the demands of which remain largely unknown?
March 5th, 2009 at 10:05 am
We can’t force. We can lead but we can’t coerce students. They must find a stake in the knowledge or it is a moot point. Until business, academia, parents and STUDENTS decide together, we as educators do what we always do. Reinvent the wheel every 2-5 years and test on disjointed facts that may or may not be relevent to their future.
March 5th, 2009 at 10:50 am
This morning on “Goodmorning America” I watched a segment featuring several people who had had prestigious jobs only to lose them in the last few months. One gentleman, in particular, had worked for a Fortune 500 company and had recently been laid off. He is now working as a custodian at $12.00 an hour, a far cry from the salary he was making previously. To him it was better than filing for unemployment insurance. In fact, after making the comparison in what he would earn, the custodian position would actually pay him more. However, that really wasn’t the point. To him, having a job, any job, was better than not working at all.
I think part of our responsibility as educators is to help prepare our students for the best job/career possible, but also to prepare them for situations we currently face. That requires focusing on work ethics,
I have at least two relatives that would never consider working as custodians because it would be too demeaning after having had high paying positions. What does this say about their work ethic?
We place so much emphasis on learning facts and concepts relevant to the SOL’s etc. We have programs for just about every educational situation possible. We encourage our students to take advanced classes and push themselves to the limit. This is all well and good, but without a strong work ethic, they cannot be as successful in the workforce. If we do not instill this in our students, they may be very smart and prepared for top paying jobs, but they will fall flat if faced with the same circumstances we face now in the current employment market .
March 5th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Educators have to continue to make sure students are well-grounded in the basics while also turning on their curiosity and giving them the tools to satisfy that curiosity. Our job is to create thinkers and learners. If we succeed in this endeavor, today’s students will always be ready for tomorrow’s jobs.
This is why most teachers entered the education field to begin with, but our field has been hijacked by those who find value in creating a nation of test-takers, as if life is a multiple-choice test. (My husband and I added up the time devoted to reviewing for the SOL’s, practicing for the SOL’s, taking the SOL’s, making up the SOL’s, and re-taking the SOL’s. It came to about 9 weeks of instruction lost to the test!) Students don’t always see what relevance this has for their lives and their futures, so they shut down or drop out.
If we are serious about preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow, we have to dramatically reduce the time spent teaching children to take tests and dramatically increase the time spent teaching them how much fun it is to learn. To do this, teachers have to be given the time to be the creative professionals that we have always been.
March 5th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Being a career switcher, I believe the most important thing we can do for our students is to make sure they are well-rounded and have many capabilities. Encouraging students to focus their intelligence on all subjects and not simply SOL subjects is important. Electives such as world languages and arts can advance a student’s career opportunities just as much as math and science. The important thing to remember is that a student who is a mathematician with no imagination or without the ability to question or create will only have a few roles open to them in their life. A person with outstanding math skills who is fluent in a second language and has the ability to create in our society is a much more valuable employee. Students need to be prepared for anything that life throws at them, including their own decisions. We need to make sure that students understand that a dynamic individual has many more doors open to them. We should embrace the international community that is growing in our country and should prepare our students not just for the technological jobs of the future, but the continued shrinking of our world as we now know it.
March 5th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Because knowledge continues continues to grow at such a rapid rate, it’s impossible to know everything. The most important KNOWLEDGE students need is how to access the information. That means how to find the information, how to organize it and how, when and why to use it. Critical thinking in decision making is the key skill. Our schools need to be communities of learning in which all shareholders feel safe, respected, supported, energized and empowered to be critical thinkers in an ever changing world.
MVS
March 5th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Critical Thinking with an interdisciplinary approach and workplace readiness skills are two areas that come to mind. These are focus points of initiatives in our district; 21st Century and Career Pathways. We must continue to stay connected to emerging educational research and trends in the job marketplace. We must also continue to nurture and recognize effective instructional practice and those leading it in our school district.
A Brayboy
March 7th, 2009 at 11:55 am
To help students succeed with their future, we as teachers are preparing them for an unknown world and experiences. I believe that by teaching students how to creatively problem solve, and find answers to what they are looking for. Our students are more capable of using technology and solving problems, then what we sometimes give them credit for. To help better prepare our students we need give them the keys to help them succeed.