School is not
all about the academics—at least it shouldn’t be. Look around you. The skills necessary
for success in the world include far more than strong academic achievement. Businesses
now expect effective personal and interpersonal skills, along with
technical skills and overall competence. We suffer from a “workforce
skills gap” in this country that threatens to become a national crisis.
Consider the
following:
- 53 percent of respondents listed “finding and retaining qualified employees” as a top business challenge, according to a 2016 HireRight Employment Screening Benchmarking Report.
- The Manpower Group found that 52 percent of employers say they have a hard time finding qualified employees to fill jobs. Yet we all know recent college graduates who cannot find jobs. Why, given that employers cannot fill positions?
- Today’s labor force is older, and more racially, ethnically and gender diverse than ever. These trends will continue to shape the workforce for at least until 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Students Need
These Skills
The skills
gap is not simply the lack of academic skills or specific occupational skills.
It is personal skills as well. I believe schools have an obligation to
emphasize these personal skills along with academic skills. From my
perspective, this is a call to action that no school can afford to ignore.
What skills
are we talking about? Communication; problem-solving; taking initiative; self-direction;
the ability to work with others. You get the idea.
Today’s
companies look for high school and college graduates with demonstrated
abilities in these skills. They expect schools to balance academics with workplace
and personal skills. That’s not happening consistently.
The Hudson
Institute’s Workforce 2020 report
says the average manufacturer finds that five out of six job applicants lack
basic writing or verbal skills. Many of these applicants are high school, or even
college, graduates but their writing and speaking skills are limited to
academic applications; schools neglected real-world writing and speaking
applications.
In addition,
employers report that a greater gap exists in personal skills than in academic
skills. Only 50 percent of high school students are prepared for entry-level
positions. Most lack these personal skills, according to the report, Meeting the Demand: Teaching Soft Skills.
Today’s
workplace is a high-tech, high-performance environment. Companies expect
employees to be independent thinkers and problem solvers. If we as educators
truly want to prepare students for this 21st century world of work,
secondary schools must integrate personal skill development into existing
curriculums.
How You Do It
It starts
with creating what I call a “culture of success”—for every student, not only in
school but also outside the classroom.
Good teachers
create this culture by continually adjusting their instructional approaches to
meet students’ needs. Educators should focus on the whole student, and look for
ways for them to interact with others.
Does your
school have a requirement for volunteering? Do you allow students to hold
leadership positions in clubs or sports? To you have a way to assess a student’s
personal skills: time management, ability to plan and organize work? Do your
students respect diversity? Can they work as a member of a team? Schools must
focus on these skills – not just the skills and knowledge needed for the next
standardized test.
If our
mission is to prepare students for success in the world beyond school, then we
must develop the whole student. The
schools presenting at this year’s Model Schools Conference on June 25-28 in
Nashville, have just that. More information on the conference and these schools
is available by clicking on the following link:
2017 Model Schools Conference.
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