We go from class to class, switching our minds from one set of subjects to another. It is a routine task we do everyday. We absorb content from one subject and then move to the next class to absorb the content from that class. It seems like a monotonous and continual absorption of solely educational content is occurring in classroom walls. What about the skills that employers and workplace industries are looking for? Employers are looking for candidates that possess critical skills and talents that go beyond the classroom, yet we are still sitting at the same desks taking in information.

Stemming from my post regarding standardized testing, I had discussed the notion of “teaching to the test”. This ideology present heavily in the K-12 public school system emphasizes the education of content on state level standardized tests. The system has “educations who are still focused on content” (Adams). The curriculum in schools revolves around reading, math, and science, which are the subjects routinely tested in students. Extensive time is granted to focus on these classes, and students are fed this information every day. Continuation of this pattern leads to students falling behind in other important skill levels. These skills are the ones that are necessary “to meet the demands of a 21st century economy” (Williams). Different employers and career agencies will highlight different skills that employers look for, but several similarities occur across the parties. Many have made mention of leadership, curiosity, collaboration, integrity, communication, and more. Each one plays with one another to form a complete and skilled person, and an embodiment of these skills is what employers look for. Beyond the intellect of students, they look to see that they will add to the team. However, since students are brought up on specific subjects drilled into their minds, they are already behind. There is a disconnect between the education system and what is required in the world. Companies struggle to find properly skilled talent leading to 49% of companies reporting unfilled job openings and 37% unable to take on new projects (Francis).

Some countries address this in their respective ways by focusing on general character development while schooling students. They start early in elementary school levels and teach life qualities such as generosity, empathy, and self-control among others (Newman). Starting this implementation earlier allows for students to refer back to this learning as they continue with the hearty educational content. The skills carry throughout the rest of their education careers and are further tuned as they implement it with others at higher levels of education. US public education has left this out of the curriculum and students don’t have the same preparation.

Furthermore, there can be programs implemented beyond the curriculum or in tandem with each other. One popular answer among education leaders revolves around work-based learning (Francis). Students should be able to become involved with companies first hand through internships to gain experience of the skills the same employers are looking for at the time of employment. This can begin early in high school years, and then later in the college years it can be better implemented and fine tuned. At the high school level, there are a few examples of summer programs that allow students to be paired with career representatives. These representatives aid in enforcing the key workplace skills through practices and activities that best resemble real life programs. From there, the students are exposed to the true workplace and spend time shadowing, asking questions, and sometimes working. Continual involvement in this type of work allows for the skills to be built upon and at the college level, it can be implemented again in numerous other manners. Offering these programs at colleges and universities across the nation would further allow students to become stronger in the soft skills required. Within the classrooms, there can be increased efforts for project based learning to occur. These projects should aim to focus on real world problems and should be stretched over a long period of time. From this, we can focus on problem-solving skills and applying knowledge to action. This would also help directly with skills such as curiosity, collaboration, dedication, and leadership (Adams).

There are improvements to be made to fix the disconnect that is present between what is taught in the classroom and what employers seek in terms of skills. There are solutions and alternatives to what is already in place, but we must take these steps to see the improvements. We cannot sit idly by and enforce the same policies.

Works Cited:

Adams, Caralee. “Addressing Disconnect Between Student Skills and Employer Needs.” Education Week – College Bound, 12 Mar. 2015, blogs.edweek.org/edweek/college_bound/2015/03/addressing_mismatch_between_job_needs_and_education_system.html.

Francis, Jaimie, and Zac Auter. “3 Ways to Realign Higher Education With Today’s Workforce.” Gallup.com, Gallup, 9 Feb. 2020, www.gallup.com/education/231740/ways-realign-higher-education-today-workforce.aspx.

Newman, Nicole. “Education: Effective Ways to Decrease the Disconnect between Education and Employment.” LinkedIn, 18 June 2017, www.linkedin.com/pulse/education-effective-ways-decrease-disconnect-between-nicole-newman.

Williams, Courtney. “The Disconnect Between Education and Entrepreneurship.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 16 Aug. 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/courtneywilliams/2017/08/15/the-disconnect-between-education-and-entrepreneurship/#557aec3c5c07.