The Necessary Skills Every Young Person Must Have

By Shay Wright

As I write this I am sitting on a plane leaving my rural New Zealand hometown to fly back to run a fast growing business in the city. Luckily for me, after a fleeting visit, I get to just “fly away” from the deprivation and unemployment. But many in my hometown don’t. I’m one of the fortunate ones that was not shackled by our education system.

And while most in my hometown dropped out of high school to chase quick money, even those that did graduate University often murmur how they feel cheated by the education system that hasn’t properly prepared them to face the 21st Century job market, or to face life.

Our Education Minister summarised it well when she said “We have a 19th Century education system, utilizing 20th Century teachers to develop 21st Century learners.”

So with that in mind, I want to contemplate what our education system might look like if we were to redesign it with the 21st Century in mind. If we were to drop in the three big rocks, arguably Literacy, Numeracy and Science would still remain. These are still necessary skills that set a platform for young people in the job market today. But we can add to that a number of essential skills that young people don’t get to practice in school. The truth is, most millennials entering the job market in New Zealand, still work for organisations, corporates, enterprises, government agencies or small businesses. Yet these young people have no clue about how these organisations actually work. About how the business models work. About how the operating models work. The lifeblood is money, but how do we read a budget?

If I reflect on what enabled me to chart my own path, it took skills and knowledge beyond the traditional STEM subjects (Science, Technology, English and Mathematics) – the things that still dominate our school curriculum.

And while being a young entrepreneur doesn’t really reflect the standard norms in the society that I live, the reality is that nothing does. There is no ‘one size fits all’. There are such vast differences that our education system needs to cater to. The rural life in my hometown is poles apart from the hustle bustle of the city. And yet our education system is supposed to deliver to both.

There are a few diamonds in the rough – a few necessary skills that every young person would benefit from when entering the job market. It is these skills that I firmly believe our education system should focus on instilling in all students.

1) Finding our passions and purpose

Most young people have no idea what they want to do with their lives, and are unsure of their own passions, strengths, or the opportunities out there for them. This leads to a lot of meandering, misplaced effort, cognitive dissonance, frustration and disengagement. Knowing what we are truly passionate about, what makes us tick, what difference we want to makein the world- I believe goes a long way towards being successful in any job.

2) Finding our strengths

We are born with natural strengths and weaknesses. Often we take our strengths for granted, or don’t realise them until we see others struggle with things we so naturally grasp. The quicker we can identify these strengths, hone them and play to them, the quicker we make progress – in any job as well as in life. This is not difficult to learn per-say – but not often is it a feature of any education system.

3) Understanding how to develop systems

Since more than a third of our current jobs are likely to be replaced by technology over the next two decades, knowing how to build systems that break processes into parts and embed technology into them will mean we constantly stay relevant in the system. Education at a secondary and tertiary level should equip us with the skills to stay one step ahead of the game, rather than constantly playing catchup.

4) Coordinating projects

Much of life is about coordinating multiple resources to achieve an outcome. The valuable jobs, and especially those associated with entrepreneurialism and innovation, involve a component of organising. Education systems that blend multiple disciplines together and contextualise learning into a project not only make it more rewarding, but also more relevant to real life.

And if you aren’t convinced by that, then what about these two facts. We are the first generation that can put an end to poverty. We are also the last generation that can put an end to climate change. That is the work that needs to be done by our generation. I believe our heart is in it, and numerous research backs that up. But we need the tools, the skills, and the awareness of how to think differently and how to develop systems that can be scaled to solve such massive challenges. And we need to be able to earn a living as we do it. It just so happens that our education system plays a pivotal role in providing this.

So as I watch another sunrise from 30,000 feet in the air, flitting between cities and rural towns, I consider this – was there anything about our current education system that really helped me to get here? I am not so sure… but for the next generation of change makers, global citizens and conscious thinkers I believe that answer can, and should be different.