EEND 681 Module 4 discussion
Hello class,
I found this week's read, Exploring America’s Tech Skills Gap and the Parallel Deficits of Applied Tech Skills and Hard Tech Skills, interesting on many fronts. They say that this generation is so tech savvy, but unfortunately I found nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, if I had to sum up their skill set in 2 words I would call this generation "tech lazy". That is why I didn't find this article surprising, but yet confirmation of what I have observed in my own high school classrooms. Sure, students are good at texting, snap chatting, or buying Lala Palooza tickets, but ask them to do some research or find and analyze data online and it is a whole different story. I think we need to consider teaching these students "21st century" tech skills as a part of our curriculum or we are doing these students a disservice. Especially when this week's reading assignment states that 77% of a company's competitive advantage lies in its worker's skills to apply tech skills to solve problems.
Over 70 percent of the employers surveyed in our reading assignment said it was difficult to find applicants that possessed the necessary tech skills to hire them for their company. That is a crazy high percentage! Even more alarming is that just 11 percent of the companies surveyed said that schools do a good job of preparing students for the work force. This last piece of data should really be a wake-up call for educators. If our number one goal is to prepare students for college and the workforce, and we are failing at that according to these tech companies, then maybe we need to take a look at our curriculum. Maybe, we need to revisit the emphasis on content and "fun facts" about history or science, and focus more on the skill sets and fostering critical thinking skills. That is why our state's adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards has been such a positive move in that very direction. We now focus less on science facts that honestly many students would never use in the real world to now using the content to drive critical thinking skills, engineering practices, and cross cutting concepts.
What I found interesting was that over half of the companies are not happy with their employees continued education in the job field. I would think that would fall on the companies themselves. I believe that once hired, they should provide their employees with appropriate professional development. If new technology develops, they should be responsible for making sure their employees are adequately trained. This is one area I believe school districts excel at when compared to other fields. We constantly have professional development opportunities, and in my district if you seek out an opportunity that will improve the curriculum, the district almost always provides funds and time to get the training.
The next section focuses on how different fields require more tech skills than others and therefore have different opinions on how much training is necessary. This seems obvious and makes sense how it would skew the results depending on the company. My tech skills suffice for my current job, but I would fail to meet the standards of an IT company. It's important to note that 60% of the employers surveyed expect an increase in the tech skills needed to do the same job in the future. That alone suggests we need to prepare students for those trends regardless of what career they look to after graduation.
The last part of the article discusses how we need to bridge the gap between employers and educational facilities. I agree that this connection could really be improved. Although I have seen an increase in career days, or job shadowing opportunities, I think it would be great if companies see an issue to partner with educators to bridge that gap. Again, if our goal is to prepare students to be productive citizens then teaming up with their future employers could only get us closer to that goal.
Thank you ,
Jim
Sources:
Career Advisory Board Reveals Growing Lack of Tech Preparedness for the American Workforce
Exploring America’s Tech Skills Gap and the Parallel Deficits of Applied Tech Skills and Hard Tech Skills
I found this week's read, Exploring America’s Tech Skills Gap and the Parallel Deficits of Applied Tech Skills and Hard Tech Skills, interesting on many fronts. They say that this generation is so tech savvy, but unfortunately I found nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, if I had to sum up their skill set in 2 words I would call this generation "tech lazy". That is why I didn't find this article surprising, but yet confirmation of what I have observed in my own high school classrooms. Sure, students are good at texting, snap chatting, or buying Lala Palooza tickets, but ask them to do some research or find and analyze data online and it is a whole different story. I think we need to consider teaching these students "21st century" tech skills as a part of our curriculum or we are doing these students a disservice. Especially when this week's reading assignment states that 77% of a company's competitive advantage lies in its worker's skills to apply tech skills to solve problems.
Over 70 percent of the employers surveyed in our reading assignment said it was difficult to find applicants that possessed the necessary tech skills to hire them for their company. That is a crazy high percentage! Even more alarming is that just 11 percent of the companies surveyed said that schools do a good job of preparing students for the work force. This last piece of data should really be a wake-up call for educators. If our number one goal is to prepare students for college and the workforce, and we are failing at that according to these tech companies, then maybe we need to take a look at our curriculum. Maybe, we need to revisit the emphasis on content and "fun facts" about history or science, and focus more on the skill sets and fostering critical thinking skills. That is why our state's adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards has been such a positive move in that very direction. We now focus less on science facts that honestly many students would never use in the real world to now using the content to drive critical thinking skills, engineering practices, and cross cutting concepts.
What I found interesting was that over half of the companies are not happy with their employees continued education in the job field. I would think that would fall on the companies themselves. I believe that once hired, they should provide their employees with appropriate professional development. If new technology develops, they should be responsible for making sure their employees are adequately trained. This is one area I believe school districts excel at when compared to other fields. We constantly have professional development opportunities, and in my district if you seek out an opportunity that will improve the curriculum, the district almost always provides funds and time to get the training.
The next section focuses on how different fields require more tech skills than others and therefore have different opinions on how much training is necessary. This seems obvious and makes sense how it would skew the results depending on the company. My tech skills suffice for my current job, but I would fail to meet the standards of an IT company. It's important to note that 60% of the employers surveyed expect an increase in the tech skills needed to do the same job in the future. That alone suggests we need to prepare students for those trends regardless of what career they look to after graduation.
The last part of the article discusses how we need to bridge the gap between employers and educational facilities. I agree that this connection could really be improved. Although I have seen an increase in career days, or job shadowing opportunities, I think it would be great if companies see an issue to partner with educators to bridge that gap. Again, if our goal is to prepare students to be productive citizens then teaming up with their future employers could only get us closer to that goal.
Thank you ,
Jim
Sources:
Career Advisory Board Reveals Growing Lack of Tech Preparedness for the American Workforce
Exploring America’s Tech Skills Gap and the Parallel Deficits of Applied Tech Skills and Hard Tech Skills
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