Today, to equal fanfare and wailing, saw Michael Gove (UK Education Secretary) launch a series of educational reforms designed to better prepare the children of the UK for the workforce of the next decade. This is of course a deeply contentious subject but one that is of real interest to me as both an employer and a parent of a teenager. Interestingly, the challenges that Michael Gove is trying to wrestle with come into a wonderful and sharp focus in the arena of "workshadowing". The very moment that many of the modern day pupils are given their first glimpse of the world of work.
Below is a very personal view of what happens when the world of work and the world of school collide.
Recently I proudly hosted my 14 year old son in the office. He was “work shadowing” me. For the uninitiated that means he
accompanied me to work for a single day to watch and observe me as I make my
way through a typical day at the office.
The theoretical idea is that he sees what the world of work is actually
like and starts to form some views as to what he would like to do with his
life.
What
I was thinking beforehand was...
This’ll
be a good day – it’ll give my boy a chance to meet some of the people I mention
over the dinner table at home and give him a really good insight into what it’s
like to actually go out to work. I
secretly hope that’ll he be a bit proud of me.
What
he was thinking beforehand was...
This
has a lot of potential for being a really dull day - I can’t believe I have to
get up so early, I wonder what Dad eats for lunch and I can’t wait to go to
Thorpe Park with the rest of the class tomorrow.
What
actually happened was...
That
I successfully illustrated to him that his Father’s working life does in fact
consist of getting up early, commuting and then hopping from one meeting to the
next until it’s home time. He dutifully
trailed me around, did his school “workshadow” report in the quiet moments
between meetings, got suitably bored and fell asleep on the train home.
What
he learnt was...
Commuting
is tiring and Dad’s job is actually duller than I thought – now for Thorpe Park
What
I learnt was...
That
my son looks better in a suit than I do.
That the experience our children have at school is a million miles away
from the way we work in the modern office environment. That it’s really difficult to impress a 13
year old by typing at a PC whilst sitting at a desk, that I need to do a bit more planning and
preparation before he comes back to try and do “work experience” for a week at
the grand old age of 15.
What all this tells us about education reform...
Clearly more can be done to better prepare our children for the world of work. However, given that many of my adult friends spend really quite some time reminiscing about their school days and in particular their own "Thorpe Park" moments I would urge caution before we run headlong into creating a school experience that perfectly mirrors the workplace. In hindsight, if we are looking for convergence, perhaps we should be looking to make the workplace experience more like the one many of us enjoyed at school - to be fair there are quite a few workplaces that I have visited that would undoubtedly benefit from having a day out at Thorpe Park too.
