Valuable insights: Preparing today’s students for the careers of the future

‘Creative minds need creative spaces’

Recently several members of the Westcountry team attended a conference on the changing scene of education and how we can prepare today’s students, in the best possible ways, for the jobs of the future. We picked up several valuable insights which we feel define the future world of work and how we can adapt to this changing environment.

In today’s fast-paced, technology-fuelled workplace, employers are looking for creative minds to give their company the edge over competitors – it’s about helping our students to help their employers stay ahead of their game.

We were told that “Creative minds need creative spaces”, and we couldn’t agree more. It’s much easier to think creatively when the space in which you work is inspiring, innovative and maybe slightly ‘Googlesque’. Although we’re not all going to work in a fun, innovative office, it’s imperative that students make the best use of their surroundings, adapting to the layout and discovering their favoured way of working. In this way, they can be sure that they will be nurturing a culture of creativity, enabling them to think outside the box and discover new and innovative ways of ‘doing things better’.

“Employers are now looking for collaborative competence” – this means that when graduates join companies they must know how to work together to achieve results. So the onus is on teaching staff to ensure that whilst still in education, our students develop the skillsets they need to work collaboratively and effectively as a team. No longer is it about the teacher working with a pupil, but the pupils working with each other – with the teacher at the stern.

With the rate at which technology is advancing, students these days are being prepared for jobs that don’t exist yet. Many current jobs will be replaced by robots, but new job opportunities are constantly arising – the difficult thing is, we don’t know what these new jobs will be. So how can you prepare and train students?

The secret lies in helping students “Learn how to learn”, meaning they discover their favoured way of learning; of how they, as an individual, work best. Learning how to learn is one of the most valuable skillsets a student can learn. Once they have discovered how they, as an individual work best, their possibilities are endless, and whichever career role they find themselves in, they will be sure to quickly adapt to it and succeed in all that they do.