There are two major trends seen in our community that pose a fundamental challenge – and many opportunities – to our educational system. One is the shift from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy. The other is the rising generation who are brought up on the Internet is very differently motivated to learn. These two forces, compel us to reconceptualise education. NPS Sarjapur road, the best CBSE schools in Sarjapur road, enrich students with appropriate knowledge and internet usage in a balanced manner. One of the key findings was that 94% of business leaders expect employees to pick up new skills on the job. This has increased sharply in the recent past. By the time current students are graduating into the job, learning on the job will be an expectation across the verticals.
What’s more, companies estimate that around 40% of employees will require reskilling. Skills-based recruitment is also a major post-pandemic trend in the employment market at the moment. So, in this background, skills-based education is significant. Students will need robust learning skills and the ability to think critically and creatively to thrive in the future world of work. NPS Sarjapur, is Bangalore’s best schools which help students to equip with skill-set to face such challenge. Ultimately, knowledge and skills are both essential foundations of education that challenges students and pushes them to achieve their fullest potential. Students cannot develop skills in a vacuum or from nowhere. So, knowledge is like a feeder for their learning. But at the same time, students need the time and opportunity for putting into practise the skills which will help them to apply their knowledge effectively. The best curriculums will balance knowledge and skills, to help students sharpen their understanding of both themselves and around them.
Skills and knowledge are the driving forces of employment opportunities and economic growth thereof. The economy becomes more productive, innovative and competitive through the existence of more skilled human resources. The degree of employment, its components and the growth in employment opportunities are the critical indicators of the process of development in any economy. Increasing pace of globalization and technological advancements provide both challenges and growing opportunities for economic expansion and job creation.
What are employers looking for?
In the 2020 report from the World Economic Forum, titled – The Future of jobs, the top five skills that employers will be looking for in 2025 are:
- Analytical thinking and innovation
- Active learning and learning strategies
- Complex problem-solving ability
- Critical thinking and analytical skills
- Creativity, originality and initiative
So, what is a skills-based education all about?
A skills-based education is one where the focus is skills development rather than knowledge acquisition alone. This type of curriculum is structured so as to prioritise student-led learning and aids students to develop the type of transversal skills which they can apply across the subjects and use in every walks of their lives. Let’s look at an example of a skills-based plan:
Introduction: a warm up activity to engage students in the topic, giving an opportunity for students to get familiar with the subject.
Activities: get students researching and collaborating on the topic, so as to bring the creativity element.
Presentation: students present what they’ve learned in the session thereby doing a course correction, if any.
Advocates of this system believe that skills-based education, better equips students with the tools they will need to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing economy. In this model, the measure of successful learning is the development of skills which can be used in different situations in real-times, to solve different types of problems. Critics of knowledge-based education argue that developing transversal skills would be beneficial once students are part of the workplace – and in order to develop these skills, students inevitably need a skills-based education.
