21st-century skills – Schools are meant to teach them, but will employers actually want them?

We’ve all heard how important 21st-century skills are meant to be for today’s students, says Harley Richardson in the Forum’s column for Teach Secondary magazine – but given current employment trends, they may be in for a rude awakening…

There’s a claim that’s been made every few months by Britain’s business leaders for as long as I can remember: ‘Schools and universities are failing to equip young people for the workplace!’

With lockdown now making young people’s employment prospects especially gloomy, there’s a heightened urgency to that message.

Many educationalists hold our knowledge-based education system responsible, claiming it produces unimaginative young people whose heads are filled with redundant facts.

The solution? Devote more energy to teaching young people transferable ‘21st-century skills’, such as creativity and problem solving, which can be applied to whatever problems the future holds in store.

Yet my experience on both sides of the recruitment fence suggests this paints a misleading picture of the modern world of work – one that teachers and students would be well-advised to ignore...

Read the full article on TeachWire.