It has been amazing to see how much Beijing has changed, and how much China has changed in the last 20 years, but the world has changed too. The world is different from the world than when you or I went to school. For our children who are in kindergarten today if we think through 12 years of education ahead of them, and then university, they will be graduating and going into the world of work in around the year 2040.
The soft skills that we currently refer to as ‘Future Skills’ such as creativity, innovation, high level critical thinking, empathy, are already required by today’s employers. Parents have realized that traditional schools do not teach those things, because they are more focused on teaching content, and preparing students to sit for exams. But today the world is looking for a lot more from students than just a good score in a test.
I think that we need to focus on more than getting into a good university and also focus on ensuring that they have highly developed ‘future work’ skills. Skills like creativity and innovation are not taught when you are 20 years old, they need to be skills that are nurtured and developed throughout all their K-12 education. Those skills will be a key differentiator for young people to be ‘attractive’ and ‘successful’ in the world of work in the future.
I have become a strong advocate of the IB programs and over the last 20 years have seen many strong attributes that IB graduates share in common. I believe that the IB programs and philosophy have incorporated many of the key elements of future ready education. These include a focus on meaningful learning, thinking , creative and interpersonal skills and inter-disciplinary, inquiry and problem based learning. We are living in a highly interdependent global world. The IB programs are unique in their focus on developing global competence including international mindedness and understanding as well as a focus on developing an understanding of social responsibility and skills of leadership and action.
The IB continues to refine and evolve its in response to leading research worldwide. I think they are at the leading edge of the curve compared with other curricula programs and that IB schools are more focused on preparing students for the world of tomorrow. To me, that is what parents are really hoping for - giving their children a unique edge that gives the critical advantage compared to others and having the attitudes, knowledge, understandings and skills to be successful in life.
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