Unemployment has long been high on the agenda of governments all round the world. The biggest challenge is how country can make itself competitive and play to its strengths.
Education has a key role in preparing young people for the jobs market. So how can schools and universities ensure that they are offering the courses and experience that employers need in the future?
As someone once said “Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” That’s what business wants: a fertile mind that is eager to use information in creative ways.
Learning from other countries’ experience can help, by sharing good practices and seeing where policies have failed. British experience is not perfect: we can all learn from other countries.
Key aspects of the British approach are:
- Education is based on using knowledge not memorising facts. That’s what a Knowledge Economy is all about. The aim of education should be to teach us how to think, rather than what to think.
- The focus is on skills as well as knowledge. The development of a person’s skills: leadership, team work, communications, having impact, these skills are probably more important than the subject studied.
- The choice of subject is based on the student’s interests. If you like a subject you’ll probably be good at it. Parents should not pressurise their children to take up a career path for reasons of history, or the prestige of the family.
- Employers in the UK are more interested in recent experience and evidence of skills rather than the subject a job seeker has studied.
- Universities have close links with business. Universities are commercialising their research and there is a constant dialogue between the education institutions and the private sector.
- Tech Tuesday Event in Amman
The success of this approach was demonstrated last week at Amman’s monthly Tech Tuesday which showcased London’s Tech City: the fastest growing cluster of creative, technical and digital companies in the world. With typical British irony, it used to be called “Silicon Roundabout”. It is now a base for a growing number of start-ups, innovators, entrepreneurs and multi-national companies.
So how can Jordan play to its strengths? The challenge to create jobs for young people is enormous.
The fundamental point is the need for young people to decide for themselves how to prepare for employment. This might mean going for a course that is less prestigious. It might mean doing a science course rather than humanities. And it might mean doing a vocational qualification rather than a degree. And therefore tailoring your skills to meet the demands of the jobs market is the best way to get ahead.
Of course, education is about more than getting a job. An education system isn’t worth a great deal if it teaches young people how to make a living but doesn’t teach them how to make a life. It should also create active, committed citizens with values and attitudes that contribute to their society.