Gone are the days when graduates enter jobs that rely on memorisation or simple thinking. Their working lives will be dynamic and self-motivated. With that in mind, I want to ask, ‘how can school leaders support their students with becoming ready for this world?’
Think back to when you were at school. Topics such as digitalisation, sustainability and global interdependence were not as high on schools’ agendas as they are today. In the same way, employers didn’t focus on recruiting graduates with higher order thinking skills, as activities were more routine – as a result, a skills gap emerges when teachers feel less familiar with the skills they need to develop in their students.
About the author
Jane English is an Education Consultant who has been a Headteacher in UK schools for over 19 years. She is also a Master Trainer for the British Council, operating training all over the world.
What skills will your students need in 2030?
Let’s look ahead five years, when your current cohorts will have left school and forging their paths in higher education and the workplace. The common question here is: what skills do they need to have?
It’s a vital question, but I think it needs to go even further. Skills – singular learned abilities – are important by themselves, but they are also pivotal elements of the concept of a ‘competency’. Competence, in short, is a broader ability that includes a combination of skills, knowledge and behaviours. In the workplace, all three elements are equally crucial – and that’s why I think it’s the comprehensive ‘competency’ that education should be aiming to build.
The importance of 21st-century competencies
Global organisations have identified the competencies they believe young people need to have to take their place in the world in which they will live and work in. There’s lots of overlap, but I will use the six identified by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) as my example. These are:
| Cognitive | Problem solving, critical thinking and creative thinking, which are widely regarded as enhancing academic performance and improving outcomes. |
| Interpersonal | Communication, collaboration, leadership and co-operation, which are becoming increasingly important as employees can now communicate across the world instantly. |
| Intrapersonal | Persistence, adaptability, flexibility and initiative. |
| Civic and Citizenship | Intercultural communication and community engagement on both local and international scales. |
| ICT and Digital | Digital literacy and media literacy. |
| Metacognitive | Self-regulated learning, being able to instigate learning when it is appropriate and consideration of how learning takes place. |
If you put these competencies together, you end up with a well-rounded individual who is fully prepared for the challenges of life. The Oxford International Programme calls this ‘future-readiness’, or learners who are competent, critical thinkers, creative, ambitious, good communicators and learn for learning’s sake. In other words, these students have the agency to both take control of their development and keep their wellbeing central to their focus.
What can schools do?
There’s a simple answer which is remarkably difficult to begin implementing: schools should consider reviewing their education offer in response to the world their students will enter. For teachers, this means moving away from traditional classrooms, where students were talked at and made notes purely for exam memorisation. However, it also means a move away from leadership – where school leaders concentrate on admin and are focused on student progress at designated checkpoints. Instead, school leaders should focus much more on leading teaching and learning – which we now call Instructional Leadership.
On Tuesday 18 March, I’ll be leading a webinar for the Oxford International Programme on how school leaders should be looking at the style of pedagogy in their classrooms and ensuring global skills for the 21st century are being well taught. This will include looking at the changes necessary to bring about a ‘New Normal”. In addition, I will also introduce the importance of enhancing learner agency and how it can be introduced throughout your school. I’ll introduce the foundational skills and context for student agency in more detail, as well as advise how school leaders on their role in this “New Normal” for education. After all, learning never stops.
