“Education must be practical and prepare students for the working world”
“Students must be active learners - not passive recipients of knowledge”
While most educationists and students would agree with the statements above, there is a wide gap between what happens in reality.
Ask anyone what subjects are taught in a typical school and most people will be able to say Maths, Physics, Biology etc. This is the “world of subjects” — the one students are familiar with the most. The bad news is that once you leave school (or college for that matter), the world of subjects ceases to exist. Few ask if you are an expert in physics or in biology (unless you are in the academic field) anymore.
What people do ask is if you are an expert in an area within the world of work, for example in architecture; in medicine; in law; in acting and so forth.
Why should understanding the world of work be a necessity? There are two reasons for that. First, deciding on what we want to do in our careers requires us to understand the working world. We hear many students say “I want to become a banker” without knowing what the world of Finance is or “I want to become a software engineer” without understanding what Information Technology is. If you do not know about, say, the “Energy & Natural Resources” sector, how can you even consider careers within that which may be perfectly suited for you?
Opportunity
Another detailed example: what comes to mind when you think about the Health Science area? Most people think of doctors and nurses, but there are so many more opportunities. There is the field of “Medical Devices” where companies are now building low cost portable devices for India; there is “Health Insurance” where increased FDI is being proposed; the massive “Pharmaceutical Industry” which develops and sells lifesaving drugs and “Provider Services”– providing medical care that is now extending into medical tourism in India.
Each of these areas in the Health Science field offers a unique opportunity to students of science, commerce and the humanities.
Indeed, it does not matter which subject group students have taken – even a commerce graduate can work in the Health Care field. Now imagine the opportunities available when you understand the entire world of work!
The second benefit is more intangible. Understanding the working world makes youngsters more confident. We hear people often say that after understanding the working world, they are far more outgoing, bolder and are able to ask a lot more pertinent questions when they meet people from different walks of life.
Different sectors
So how do we learn about this fascinating world of work? Well, similar to the different academic subjects, we have different “sectors” that comprise the world of work. For instance, agriculture is a sector; architecture, health science, law & order, information technology are some of the others. The exciting part about learning about these sectors is that the learning can be applied to the real world immediately. Students learn to link what they learn in the classroom to the sectors, thus understanding how academic knowledge can be applied
Knowing how the world works transforms the attitude and approach of students (in school or college) to learning. They learn to figure out how what they have learned applies to the world of work. They truly become “active learners”, well prepared for the world of work.
The author is a director at the Pathways Program. He is a former surgeon and a managementconsultant.
E-mail: Vikram@thinkingpalm.com .
Website: www.pathwaysprogram.in
