“I want to be a garbage man” was the response of a Grade 3 boy when his mom asked him what he wants to be when he grows up. Since this conversation was right after the boy’s older sister stating that she wants to be a doctor when she grows up, the stark contrast in their aspirations startled the boy’s mother.
Such interesting answer must be followed up by this one-word question: “Why?”
His answer was: “Everyone has garbage. I am going to make a company and pick up their garbage.”
Little kids never stop to surprise you. Such opportunistic and entrepreneurial thinking at such a young age. This mindset is certainly necessary to survive the uncertainty of the future.
You might hear this a lot:
Jobs and skills that students are studying and training for today don’t even exist yet.
The truth to this statement is that, with such rapid change in technology in this day and age, how do we prepare students for the job market if we don’t even know what jobs will exist or no longer exist in the future. For example, according to Workopolis, these are jobs that did not exist a decade ago:
Yoga teachers
Big data analysts
Search Engine Optimization specialists
Mobile Apps developer
IOS and Android developers
Social Media managers
Five of the six above jobs are associated with the huge role technology plays in our lives including development of the Internet, Internet Search Engines, Mobile Devices, and Social Media. “Looking back now at the immense shift that the Internet has created it’s easy to understand why our guidance counsellors weren’t able to help us prepare for the future as well as we might think they should have”, stated Emma Smith in a Globe and Mail article in the year 2000. “Most [guidance counsellors] simply didn’t know enough about the future of business and industry to encourage us to explore technology careers. Instead, they encourage us to pursue traditional career paths that they felt comfortable with.”
Yes, this was stated in the year 2000; but don’t you think that it is still relevant today? We also face the issue of unpredictable career paths in the future, so how can we make sure our students are well-prepared? There is always going to be a “skills gap” that exists between what is studied in school today and what needs to be applied in the future workforce.
But there are some skills that stay essential: critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork etc.
A Globe and Mail article published in October, 2015, suggested that students should be taught to think about their future as a future of “possibilities” not “careers”. Reframing this mindset means that the following are necessary in modern education:
Teach students the skill of being resourceful
Teach students to have self-managing skills
Teach students to have entrepreneurial thinking
Teach students to have lifelong learning skills and mindset
Encourage students to explore co-op, mentoring, job shadowing options
Encourage students to take opportunities that will broaden their experience
Help students think about “the hidden job market”
Written by Mandy Lam
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