© Marquette University
Graduating from university in the late-1970s was a leisurely affair. I can hardly remember the Milk Round and few of my intellectual friends saw themselves stooping to train as accountants or solicitors. Why the rush? We knew we would find jobs and were confident that the rounded education and loyalty we offered would be just what employers were looking for.
How different things are today: the job market is tougher and schools, universities and parents view the purpose of education very differently.
With nearly one million young people unemployed, few secondary-school age children could be unaware that their prospects are different from those of their parents. In schools, “employability” is a focus in itself: academic qualifications count, but so do an understanding of the job market and the personal qualities of flexibility, imagination and adaptability. Careers education is a serious business. At the school in west London where I am head, the “Take your daughter to work” scheme for 13 year olds is followed by a conference showcasing how former students plotted their own route into medicine, the law, journalism, architecture, and so on. Diagnostic online profiling, subject choices and guidance on applying to university ensure that in the final three years of school, the focus is on the long term.
Globalisation, digital connectedness and online data storage are rapidly changing the way companies access data, so that location is no longer significant. Jobs will go to people with skills and education regardless of where they are, and the ability to work remotely will be crucial. Young people need to be their own manager, publicist, PR agent, financial adviser and career coach. They must prepare to be moved around, adapted, reassigned and, if need be, dispensed with—the 21st century employee must also be self-reliant and able to go it alone.
The rapidity of these changes poses special challenges for schools. Traditional classifications of knowledge still define the national assessment system, but students are voting with their feet. The top eight A-level subjects—English, maths, biology, psychology, history, chemistry, art & design and general studies—are unchanged since 2002, but mathematics entries have risen by 38 per cent in the last five years; those for economics and politics have also risen. At GCSE, the uptake of separate sciences has doubled since 2007. There is no doubt that the expectation of student debt has strengthened demand for science, technology, engineering and maths: the “STEM” subjects. Dispiritingly in a global economy, with the exception of Spanish, the study of modern foreign languages continues to decline.
The co-curricular programme is also changing and being given a larger role. Once we would have said this was to promote a rounded education, but now it also helps to hone the skills employers seek. Pursuing private passions through clubs—from the political discussion group to the dissection society—has always been part of the lifeblood of my school. A greater emphasis on civic engagement means volunteering your time: perhaps teaching Latin in a local primary school or helping with a riding scheme for the disabled. The new buzzword is entrepreneurship. This autumn, my pupils will launch a charity shop. Run by students and stocked with their must-have cast-offs, Re-Store will generate profits for a local charity while giving its directors business experience. The parents’ association will make small grants to student start-ups; while beyond the school gates, the independently minded also seek Saturday jobs, work experience and internships, keen to build the CV which will make them stand out.
As to what to study at university, while there are certain careers where degree subject matters—medicine, physiotherapy or engineering, for example—students see less need to follow a single academic route. They are now more aware of the currency of their wider skills, and are increasingly attracted to liberal arts programmes at the American universities. Perhaps to prevent our best minds defecting, these courses are being replicated at UK institutions. University College London, Durham and Edinburgh all offer courses spanning different subject disciplines while specific combinations such as physics and philosophy at Oxford are both prestigious and sought after. The most recent addition is being launched this year at King’s College London. Aimed deliberately at the most able A-level candidates, the programme stresses career prospects and employability as key selling points of its three-year degree course in combined arts and humanities.
Employment is one thing; finding fulfilment and making a worthwhile contribution to society is another. Whatever their immediate job prospects, the young people I meet are imaginative, tenacious, versatile and well-grounded. If our future is in their hands, then I am optimistic.
Graduating from university in the late-1970s was a leisurely affair. I can hardly remember the Milk Round and few of my intellectual friends saw themselves stooping to train as accountants or solicitors. Why the rush? We knew we would find jobs and were confident that the rounded education and loyalty we offered would be just what employers were looking for.
How different things are today: the job market is tougher and schools, universities and parents view the purpose of education very differently.
With nearly one million young people unemployed, few secondary-school age children could be unaware that their prospects are different from those of their parents. In schools, “employability” is a focus in itself: academic qualifications count, but so do an understanding of the job market and the personal qualities of flexibility, imagination and adaptability. Careers education is a serious business. At the school in west London where I am head, the “Take your daughter to work” scheme for 13 year olds is followed by a conference showcasing how former students plotted their own route into medicine, the law, journalism, architecture, and so on. Diagnostic online profiling, subject choices and guidance on applying to university ensure that in the final three years of school, the focus is on the long term.
Globalisation, digital connectedness and online data storage are rapidly changing the way companies access data, so that location is no longer significant. Jobs will go to people with skills and education regardless of where they are, and the ability to work remotely will be crucial. Young people need to be their own manager, publicist, PR agent, financial adviser and career coach. They must prepare to be moved around, adapted, reassigned and, if need be, dispensed with—the 21st century employee must also be self-reliant and able to go it alone.
The rapidity of these changes poses special challenges for schools. Traditional classifications of knowledge still define the national assessment system, but students are voting with their feet. The top eight A-level subjects—English, maths, biology, psychology, history, chemistry, art & design and general studies—are unchanged since 2002, but mathematics entries have risen by 38 per cent in the last five years; those for economics and politics have also risen. At GCSE, the uptake of separate sciences has doubled since 2007. There is no doubt that the expectation of student debt has strengthened demand for science, technology, engineering and maths: the “STEM” subjects. Dispiritingly in a global economy, with the exception of Spanish, the study of modern foreign languages continues to decline.
The co-curricular programme is also changing and being given a larger role. Once we would have said this was to promote a rounded education, but now it also helps to hone the skills employers seek. Pursuing private passions through clubs—from the political discussion group to the dissection society—has always been part of the lifeblood of my school. A greater emphasis on civic engagement means volunteering your time: perhaps teaching Latin in a local primary school or helping with a riding scheme for the disabled. The new buzzword is entrepreneurship. This autumn, my pupils will launch a charity shop. Run by students and stocked with their must-have cast-offs, Re-Store will generate profits for a local charity while giving its directors business experience. The parents’ association will make small grants to student start-ups; while beyond the school gates, the independently minded also seek Saturday jobs, work experience and internships, keen to build the CV which will make them stand out.
As to what to study at university, while there are certain careers where degree subject matters—medicine, physiotherapy or engineering, for example—students see less need to follow a single academic route. They are now more aware of the currency of their wider skills, and are increasingly attracted to liberal arts programmes at the American universities. Perhaps to prevent our best minds defecting, these courses are being replicated at UK institutions. University College London, Durham and Edinburgh all offer courses spanning different subject disciplines while specific combinations such as physics and philosophy at Oxford are both prestigious and sought after. The most recent addition is being launched this year at King’s College London. Aimed deliberately at the most able A-level candidates, the programme stresses career prospects and employability as key selling points of its three-year degree course in combined arts and humanities.
Employment is one thing; finding fulfilment and making a worthwhile contribution to society is another. Whatever their immediate job prospects, the young people I meet are imaginative, tenacious, versatile and well-grounded. If our future is in their hands, then I am optimistic.
