Boosting Training, Education and Qualifications

Education and career choice options - student thinking of future. Young Asian woman contemplating career options smiling looking up at thought bubbles on a blackboard with different professions

73 million young adults are graduating from college unprepared for the workforce and currently looking for jobs. Sebastien Turbot takes a closer look at the increasing global unemployment rate of young educated adults and discusses programs that are aiming to serve this population in his piece titled Education-Employment; Boost Skills, Bridge the Gap.
Turbot highlights how French President François Hollande has made plans to boost the local economy country wide. Plans include boosting training, education and level of qualifications for workers. Recruiters are realizing that technical and job related knowledge is more important than degrees. French companies prefer if their students arrived equipped for the open jobs, and students are questioning their ROI on investing in a traditional education if they are graduating unprepared for the workforce.
Regardless of steady graduation rates from elite universities around the world, a majority of students surveyed have said they feel unprepared for the job market that they are entering. Why? Because once in the job market, more than 50% of new graduates around the world say that they were unhappy with their chosen field of study.
And the end is not in sight. According to McKinsey & Company on current trends, the global economy could face a potential surplus of 90 million to 95 million low‐skill workers and a shortage of about 38 to 40 million high‐skill workers by 2020.
 
Employment graph
Turbot points to new innovative models of education that provide more life-long learning opportunities and what Dr. Tony Wagner refers to as the seven survival skills:

  • Critical thinking
  • Problem solving
  • Collaboration
  • Agility and adaptivity
  • Initiative and entrepreneurship
  • Communication
  • Curiosity and analysis  

Many global innovative “learn by doing” programs are highlighted in this piece. Many of the programs have an efficient practices to not only teach students how to absorb information but what to do with the knowledge once it’s obtained.

Sebastien Turbot is the Curator and Director of Global Programs at the Qatar Foundation’s World Innovation Summit for Education.
About “GenDIY”
eduInnovation and Getting Smart have partnered with The J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation to produce a thought leadership campaign called Generation Do-It-Yourself (GenDIY) – how young people are hacking a pathway to a career they love – on The Huffington Post and GettingSmart.com. This campaign about reimagining secondary and postsecondary education and career skills will explore the new generation building a global economy and experiences that are impact driven and entrepreneurial. For more on GenDIY:

 


Stay in-the-know with all things EdTech and innovations in learning by signing up to receive the weekly Smart Update.
 

Katie Vander Ark - Getting Smart

Katie Vander Ark

Katie is an education and innovation enthusiast.

Discover the latest in learning innovations

Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

0 Comments

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. All fields are required.