21st Century Skills – Getting Your Students Ready

As the 2014 Global Forum in Barcelona approaches, I’d like to talk about the need to prepare our students for the 21st century workplace. As noted in several recent studies (see for example the McKinsey Report – Education to Employment), there is a worryingly global and growing ‘skills gap’ between the abilities of school leavers and graduates and the abilities required to be successful in today’s ever changing workplace environment. How can we as educators and school leaders prepare ourselves, our classrooms, and our school communities for an environment that enables learners to be skilled and ready to meet the demands of our world today? Do these needs differ depending on where you live and/or work? As a leader and educator – what are the key things we should be thinking about and where do we start?

These are the questions that will be addressed on an expert panel in Barcelona next week but why don’t we start the debate now? You are all experts too so share your thoughts and ideas on this blog and we can see how they resonate with the panel. To attend the panel in Barcelona go to Room 116/117 at 3:30pm on March 12th. We would love to have you join the live dialogue and add your comments here.

I think the 21CLD program is as good a place to start as anywhere else. See http://www.pil-network.com/pd/21CLD/Overview. These simple to use but research driven tools will help you and your colleagues have a rich dialogue about learning design and how with a re-think on the planning process we can create really valuable 21st century skill development experiences whilst still meeting curriculum objectives.

I have seen these tools used in many countries round the world with great success. Have you used them? What did you find out? Have you adapted them? What did you do?