Tom Casey - Head of Learning and Teaching (Secondary)
Skills and capabilities for the future
Since 1982 when Prince extolled us to party like it’s 1999 we have had a fascination with the Year 2000. Y2K parties abounded as 1/1/2000 rolled through and we held our breath to see if clocks would stop ticking or nuclear missiles would automatically launch. Within education (perhaps aside from the obvious digital explosion and the portability of the same) the launch into the 2000s has been most commonly associated with the promotion of ‘21st Century Skills’. With the twenty-first century now a quarter of the way through it is worth reflecting on the range of skills and attributes seen as both the foundations and the beacons for contemporary education.
For the most part these are skills that can stand apart from regular curricular knowledge but are often developed through a study of the academic disciplines that we most commonly associate with schooling. As such, they form the basis of the many frameworks that underly school practices across the country. For the purposes of this discussion, I’ll highlight a number of these frameworks before drawing my own conclusions as to what skills and capabilities I focus on developing in my own children.
The Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority which oversees much of the planning and administration of schooling in Queensland combine these future-oriented skills into six broad categories: Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking, Communication, Collaboration & Teamwork, Personal & Social Skills and Digital Literacy. They break down each of these broader categories into discrete skill areas that allow school curriculum planners and teachers to be able to see how and where they might be able to be highlighted in the classroom and potentially taught. Similarly, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) which is a national body overseeing (among other things) the development of the Australian Curriculum have established seven broad ‘General Capabilities’ which should feature in any planning based upon the Australian Curriculum. These are: Numeracy, Literacy, Critical & Creative Thinking, Ethical Understanding, Digital Literacy, Intercultural Understanding and Personal & Social Capability.
Both of these lists have significant crossover (and it would be a reasonable question to ask why we need two different lists at all) and have been derived from significant work in the field of ‘futures’ orientation; however, they both stem from educational organisations and while they would have drawn from the world outside schools they have been filtered through a long series of educational administrative organisations.
Beyond the worlds of schooling the enormous firm of Price Waterhouse Coopers has listed ten capabilities that it believes will be highly sought after by employers in the future. I have listed them for ease of distinction:
- Clarity.
- Emotional intelligence.
- Complex problem solving.
- Judgement and decision making.
- Cognitive flexibility.
- Critical thinking.
- People Management.
- Coordinating with others.
- Service Orientation.
- Negotiation.
While again there is a significant crossover there is also a couple of interesting distinctions between the PWC list and those of the Australian education systems. ‘Service’ would feature within some of the educational lists yet PWC mention it directly. Similarly, ‘cognitive flexibility’ would be seen as a product of some of the educational categories yet PWC see it as important enough to stand alone. However, what stands out to me is that the lists of both education systems and that of business are remarkably similar. Both of these worlds know that these are important elements to develop in our young people if they are going to thrive in the future
Closer to home our Junior School is part of the International Baccalaureate Organisation which has as one of its stated aims stated aims ‘to develop resilient, self-motivated young people who have the knowledge, skills, and sense of purpose they need to thrive throughout their lives and contribute to making the world a better place.’ Rather than listing discrete skill areas the IB describes the sorts of attributes it seeks to foster within children educated at an IB school. These students will be inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced and reflective. As opposed to the lists of skills and attributes from the other organisations earlier in this article it is through the IB attributes that we can visualise the young person who embodies these ideals.
All of these lists speak to both practical and noble goals and increasingly schools are now looking to develop benchmarks in these areas or opportunities for students to acquire evidence of their capabilities across these sorts of skills. Certainly, the ‘presence’ of these skills within the information provided by educational institutions has grown over the last five years and will continue to become more obvious in years to come. I feel that it can only be a positive shift.
Yet schools at their heart are human organisations. Part of our job (collectively) is to help young people understand that the difficult things in life cannot always be solved through something they have learned in an online educational portal. I told our Year 7 families a couple of weeks ago that I have reached the stage of my career where I’m comfortable saying whatever I think is right. As such, here is my own list of essential capabilities and skills for our students for the future:
- To be able to love someone and be loved in return.
- To be a good friend.
- To tell someone that you do not agree with them and explain why.
- To tell someone that you think they did a good thing.
- To be able to be bored and be comfortable with that.
- To be able to put a device down without breaking into a cold sweat.
- To be comfortable with your own thoughts.
- To listen more than you talk.
- To know enough about ‘stuff’ to have decent conversation at a dinner table.
- To be able to focus for an extended period.
- To be able to work on something that isn’t fun.
- To be able to sit with someone in a moment of sadness.
I have enough trust in our educational organisations to understand that all of the important elements in those other lists will be covered somehow across the thirteen formal years of a young person's education and then whatever institution they head to beyond school; however, we have a collective role in ensuring that our young people become good adults and some of these skills can only be learned by engaging with those who hold high expectations for their growth into adulthood.
Finally, the College’s Andrian Statement was established to look at the young people leaving the College and consider what attributes we hope they carry with them into their futures regardless of the curricular content they’ve gathered along the way. For me it is the ultimate list of skills and capabilities for the future.
An 'Andrian' strives to be a compassionate, principled, and thoughtful individual who embodies Christ’s love, justice and humility. They are a person who nurtures positive relationships, pursues lifelong learning, and contributes to humanity with determination, courage and a commitment to excellence.
Links:
https://jobs-au.pwc.com/au/en/10-skills-you-need-for-future-employment
https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/p-10/aciq/version-9/general-capabilities/advice-and-resources