Kevin Rolle is an entrepreneur who has worked in many fields. His business skills have now landed him a position high up in a university. These days principals are not required to have teaching qualifications and sometimes their business acumen is what is required to add value to the learning establishment.

What skills will be required for the modern-day workforce and how can we instil these in our students through their education. The number one is to encourage team work. Historically team work was often accidentally discouraged in an education setting, seeing this as some kind of plagiarism or cheating. The team work that should be recommended is where all of the team will take part in the discussion offering their ideas this can then be written up by all of the students and thus everyone has contributed. There is no doubt that team work is a necessary skill in most workforces. Employers want staff who can communicate with one another on a project.

When teaching the modern workforce, you have to try and imagine what working life will be like for them and what they will actually be doing. This is quite a difficult thing to imagine but there is lots of research out there confirming what the predictions are and also statistics that show that the workforce is likely to be much more educated than in previous decades.

Decision making and problem solving is another concept that fits in with a lot of businesses, There is not much emphasis put on this or logical, independent thought and naive employees can suffer as a result of this; going the much longer path to solve a problem. The modern workplace requires innovative, creative, problem solvers who think fast on their feet, A young brain works fast and when give the right tools it is unstoppable. This is one of the reasons why lots of graduates like to study topics such as Maths and international affairs and this will stand them in good stead.

Don’t make college the natural requirement. Maybe some students who prefer to leave and get a job right away will be better off for doing so; rather than torturing them for four years, making them do something they never wanted to do and then them being no further forward four years later when they come to look for a job. In these four years many that entered into the employment market may have flourished and been promoted. We are all different and we should all follow our dreams and instincts as we do know ourselves better than anyone else knows us. Parents should not see this as a failure.

Luckily the curriculum does ensure that education is well rounded and that students get to test what they might like best and how this might affect future study or choice of career. They will also get a basic understanding of a lot of things which they can build on and will all become useful for their lives.