Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.
– Confucius, Chinese philosopher
The phenomenon which employers are facing these days with staffing has its root causes in four anchors.
An education system that does not teach what is necessary to be a productive employee – in both substance of matter and personality that matters.
We have an education system so misaligned with what is actually needed to survive in ‘the real world’ that employers are now tasked with teaching and hand holding employees for months – not on the fundamentals of their specific industry, which may be understandable, but on basic fundamentals of how to dress, take minutes, how to communicate, how to behave around clients and your supervisors, punctuality, consistency and more.
These are things which should be taught in school or university but are instead dumped on to the industry which is supposed to babysit the students, while paying them.
I don’t think this is fair.
Students pay the university and schools so they can work in companies and earn a salary. If a company has to pay them market value salaries to do a job, then they need to hit the ground running because the company wastes valuable time being a secondary university.
This is where I recommend a system of apprenticeship. Get the industry to train students, who learn from the best people in the industry, how to get a job done.
Apprentices get to meet and deal with real masters of the industry and learn on the job how to deal with clients, real time. The industry then gives them a certificate of learning after one1 year, and then offers them a job if they think they are good in what they do. I am willing to bet the industry will pay them above market rate if they have trained the apprentice themselves. I know I will.
Can you imagine a scenario, where young people are allowed to choose multiple career paths in the formative years of their lives WITHOUT needing to pay anything?
Take an example of Helen. Helen has been told by her father that she MUST be a lawyer like him. Helen is confused because she does not know what else is out there that may be more aligned with her. If she takes law, her parents have to fork out half a million to send her overseas to study in some prestigious law college, because her father feels pressured to keep up with the Joneses.
Helen does not want to waste her parent’s money and feels guilty. She also feels deep inside her heart that law is not meant for her, and she will not excel in it. She wants something else, but she does not really know what because she has never experienced working in any industry.
But let’s say Helen has an option in a system which is not dictated by universities that churn millions of degrees a year and thereby creating a one size fits all scenario with young minds.
In a clean, clear, unbroken system, Helen could be an apprentice in a law firm and after one year get a certificate in legal apprenticeship from the law firm, and then go on and apply to be an apprentice in a public relations company and get a certificate on public relations apprenticeship. She then can apply to a civil engineering company and get a civil engineering apprenticeship. At this point, after three years of apprenticeship, Helen feels she understands herself better and knows what she really wants to do in life.
The best part? Helen and her parents have not had to spend a single dollar on education all these three years! In fact, Helen was getting her education for free, from the maestros in the industry to teach her. They in return get a young mind who is keen on that field and wants to prove herself to get a certificate of ability that will help her land great jobs.
Helen realises that she felt happiest and gave her best, in the public relations company. To hone in her skills in this field, she applies for another apprenticeship in a creative media agency and learns a lot more on design, writing, storytelling, media and how to connect all the dots.
She has spent four years getting a multitude of experiences in diverse fields and it was all free! She is also more confident because she has spent four years, not cloistered in isolated academia, but working with the best expert minds of four different industries.
She now applies for a job in this field and her scope is very wide.
Employers from some of the biggest agencies snap her up. The apprenticeship certificates have given remarks on her strengths and weaknesses so potential employers do not even need to test her, or wonder how she is going to be.
It’s a great win-win system.
This could be done on partnership with industry and university. For those who opt for apprenticeship, they can do one year apprenticeship certificate from an industry and then go on and do two years of academia in a university if they so desire.
But coming from an apprenticeship programme, the student now goes into a degree programme with eyes wide open.
Join me next week as I discuss the second, third and fourth anchors that are creating a labour problem – government, families and the social narratives.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune. Feedback can reach the writer at beatrice@ibrasiagroup.com
