Kerkko Jahnukainen
Problem: What builds employability? Uncertainty of employment for people with higher education.
Learning Objectives: Motivation in uncertainty. How can schools predict future labor market? Skills for emplyabilty. Uncertainty of employment for people with higher education.
Keywords: Motivation, future skills, uncertainty, employability
We have now had our first trigger presented to us and we narrowed it down to a simple: "What builds employability?" After brainstorming as a group and categorizing everything we came up with our learning objectives as well as some key words to help us with our research. I have gathered here my research regrading each topic. More exact references are at the bottom of the document with direct links to all sites.
How can schools predict future labor market?
Future jobs are forever changing as is the world around it. Many jobs are being taken over by computer controlled robots as shown in an Oxford study which predicts that early half of current U.S. jobs are at high-risk for computerization over the next 30 years (www.digilearn.org) and the boundaries of most if not all jobs are are merging. To survive in a modern work ecosystem employees are demanded skills in multitude of areas. A person cannot become a master of everything, so schools must teach subjects with broader range of utility that range across positions or even professions and no longer is the "I’m prepared for life so hire me because I have a diploma” mentality going to be viable for the future generations.
On top of traditional maths, science or humanistic subjects, education even from grade schools needs to focus on non-materialistic things, but also areas such as creativity and innovation which really are the seeds of future that make things move forward. A creative person can think outside the box to solve problems and overcome obstacles in the working life reducing the need for specific training for everything.
Learning methods also play a huge part in learning which also need to adapt along the way among everything else. Maybe virtual reality will be the future, or not, but it is certain that technology is a key part of it. But also big part of this is adapting to the students, the core and main principle, perhaps molding the curriculum to individually fit each students more rather than trying to squeeze everyone in one.
(www.thenationalae)
(www.educationworld.com)
What builds employability?
Article on www.kent.ac.uk listed ten important skills that employers look for. The list included these then attributes: verbal communication, teamwork, commercial awareness, analyzing & investigating, drive, written communication, planning & organizing, flexibility and time management. All of these are fairly straight forward everyday things, but if they are missing finding a job might be difficult. Of course we must look beyond these simple traits and consider things like motivation and education. In today work market "transferable skills" are invaluable since they are skills which can ably to many different jobs, like IT-skills or finance.
With the right attitude, motivation and education we have the equation for success in the labor market. Usually the jobs isn't knowing this but rather finding all of them and with current jobs asking more and more of the employee in terms of the range of skills, it can sometimes seem very intimating even for some positions which are considered "low tier".
Attitude and motivation both mostly stem from the individual and less from external sources(but not completely!) where as education is pretty much on society as a person cannot change the teaching, variety or the quality of the learning. So it is also up schools to provide quality education which will land jobs for the people with diplomas.
What builds employability?
Article on www.kent.ac.uk listed ten important skills that employers look for. The list included these then attributes: verbal communication, teamwork, commercial awareness, analyzing & investigating, drive, written communication, planning & organizing, flexibility and time management. All of these are fairly straight forward everyday things, but if they are missing finding a job might be difficult. Of course we must look beyond these simple traits and consider things like motivation and education. In today work market "transferable skills" are invaluable since they are skills which can ably to many different jobs, like IT-skills or finance.
With the right attitude, motivation and education we have the equation for success in the labor market. Usually the jobs isn't knowing this but rather finding all of them and with current jobs asking more and more of the employee in terms of the range of skills, it can sometimes seem very intimating even for some positions which are considered "low tier".
Attitude and motivation both mostly stem from the individual and less from external sources(but not completely!) where as education is pretty much on society as a person cannot change the teaching, variety or the quality of the learning. So it is also up schools to provide quality education which will land jobs for the people with diplomas.
(www.kent.ac.uk)
(www.skillsyouneed.com)
Uncertainty of employment for people with higher education
Uncertainty for people who have spent 3-5 years or even more studying hence not working (at least not full time) should not be a gamble or a sacrifice. It really should an investment with a really low failure chance. It used to be that way, get a diploma then get a job in that field and then work their for the rest of your life. But now days jobs change, new ones emerge, some even stop existing or get handed to lifeless robots. And this gamble is the reason for some people to not persuade for higher education which in long term is alarming. An article posted on The Guardian (www.thegurading.com ) had five teenagers talk about their future plans and reason why they didn't go to university. Their reasons mostly consisted of saying that they din't need higher education and that they could learn all the necessary things at work, which I would say roots it self to the original dilemma of "wasting time" educating ourselves. When you start working from a young age, you're not essentially "risking anything" as money will keep flowing in, but in long term I think this is very scary, as education is one the most important things for everyone personally but even more so for the society. Higher education are more aware of things happening around them and thus will more prepared for the ever changing future.
Motivation in uncertainty
Motivation can tough to keep up in an uncertain position. It really works in a cycle where uncertainty decreases motivation and lower motivation adds uncertainty. If we throw in the mix education, labor market and perhaps social life, we've got ourselves quite a jumble. The things to do in these kinds of situation really revolver around the very text book stereotypical "look on the bright side" type of stuff, but in reality it holds up pretty well. In uncertain times there really is no right answer as the future is unknown, so going by gut feeling probably is the best option. Setting a clear goal and planing ahead can help you to look in the right direction.
Sources:
https://www.thenational.ae/education-system-needs-to-adapt-to-a-fast-changing-world-1.473481
http://www.necsi.edu/research/management/education/teachandlearn.html
http://www.digilearn.org/news/viewpoint-education-must-adapt-to-change
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr046.shtml
https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/top-ten-skills.htm
https://www.skillsyouneed.com/general/employability-skills.html
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/aug/17/teenagers-not-going-to-university-fees-debt
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