Transitioning from education into work: some musings from Dr Helen Wright MA (OXON), EDD, PGCE, Chair of the MMP Advisory Board.

Wise old people tell me that, when we step back and look at the continuum of our lives, with the accumulated experiences and perspective that come with more advanced years, we can detect a strong central thread; in other words, it all makes sense. Birth to death runs through a series of stages, each of which leads to another, and if we reflect astutely enough, we can detect why and how we made each shift, what influenced us, and where our ‘sliding door’ moments were – where one decision led in one direction, whereas another choice would have led us down a different path. Comforting though this knowledge of future wisdom might be, it does not offer much solace to the young person still in the early years of life; besides, the unspoken message embedded in the promise of this ultimate wisdom is that the decisions we make, and the experiences with which we engage in life, will undoubtedly shape the outcomes. In other words, the central thread is ours to weave; that in itself can be daunting thought for the young, who might reasonably expect some guidance in this matter.

Schools are the obvious source of such guidance, of course; one of the challenges of mass school systems throughout the world, however, is that they are split into distinct stages which often struggle to connect. Early Years teachers will testify to the vast differences they see in the children entering their stage of schooling, depending on their earliest experiences and family background; when children move into the primary phase, they often encounter a whole new set of expectations about what learning should look like, planned and supervised by professionals who have trained in this phase, but who may have only a limited appreciation of the fundamental drives of early years. This is through no fault of these professionals; it derives from their training, all of which is delivered with the best of intentions and, in optimal cases, is informed by the most insightful research to date. This often serves children well; equally, however, it also frequently overlooks the individuality of children, because in striving to bring children to a uniform set of standards, it does not prioritise honouring each child’s unique journey to date.

The move from primary to secondary stage, I have noticed over the years, is even more challenging in this respect. Children arriving at secondary school at the age of 11 are often seen by their teachers as blank canvases, or as an accumulation of data which is rapidly replaced by data that the secondary school perceives to be more relevant, but which in fact loses sight of the totality of a child’s experience to date. Meantime, primary school teachers lament the fact that their students, if they keep track of them (which is in itself difficult given their physical relocation), either seem to tread water in their new schools, or fail to thrive. All-through schools are not immune from this phenomenon either; teachers across the world are most commonly trained as either ‘primary’ or ‘secondary’, and curricula are written by specialists in specific year phases rather than by generalist-specialists across the whole 0–18 spectrum. Do sufficient numbers of these people exist, anyway?

The challenge continues as a child progresses through the teenage years. Good secondary schools will help their students tune into themselves, make appropriate choices about the subjects they study and the destinations they pursue post-school, and develop the skills and demeanours they will need in order to thrive and flourish post-18. The shift from secondary school to university, however, is one of the points at which the most significant fractures can occur in a young person’s journey, especially if the post-school destination is a prized university place. University can and should be a place of advanced learning, scholarship for scholarship’s sake, practical skill-building, connecting with fellow human beings, and maturing together … but it is also, for the vast majority, only a very few years of their life, and it will soon be left behind. Preparing to enter university matters; arguably even more important, however, is preparing to leave it successfully.

When university is seen as a destination rather than as one stage in a longer journey, a troubling interruption can appear in a young person’s development. Schools, and parents, rightly celebrate university entrance, and look on fondly as their offspring enjoy the experience; a university degree alone, however, will not equip these same offspring to move into the next stage of their lives. We know this because employers everywhere bemoan the lack of work-readiness of the average 21-year-old, and that same 21-year-old grumbles about the lack of graduate-level jobs, or how hard they are to secure; dig deep into almost any culture across the world at the moment, and you will find similar sentiments. Many universities would argue that, by the time a student reaches them, they need to be able to take responsibility for their own decision-making and choices, and this is a valid position for them to take … but only if there is a universal understanding of this amongst all the agencies and bodies involved in a child or young person’s life up to this point.

Bottom line: for young people to be in a position where employers will employ them post-university, they need not only a university degree, but relevant work experience; and if no-one ever tells them this, ensures that they learn it, or models that understanding for them, then, without wishing to sound overly dramatic, society will have failed them. They will learn from that interruption, of course, and will no doubt look back after many years on the decisions they took as a result of not doing work experience, and on how they developed resilience and creative problem-solving as they sought work … but this is a hollow promise, compared to the opportunities that may have passed them by, had they but known the importance of relevant preparation.

Having watched many hundreds of students transition through university over the last three decades, I am certain that universities can do more to honour the continuum of the individual child. However, this responsibility cannot fall solely on the shoulders of universities; everyone involved in the development of a child’s life has a responsibility to help them appreciate this. And there is a fine balance here; we should resist strongly any pressure to paint childhood solely as preparation for adulthood, for instance; Dewey’s exhortation to remember that ‘education is not a preparation for life, but life itself’ should ring always in our ears. We can too, of course, become defensive about what we already do in schools, or we could seek to offer a bit more of a focus on career education; it is assuredly the case, however, that a couple more visits to Primary 3 by well-meaning professional parents, or an extra week of work experience in Year 10, will not make any substantive difference to the employability of the next generation.

What could make the difference, however, is a shared and connected sense of the responsibility that we all have for the entire continuum of a child’s growth into adulthood. If, at every stage of transition, we genuinely take the opportunity to understand the prior journey of that child, teenager, or young adult, and if we take time to reflect with them on this, this could genuinely allow them to consider and explore their options, and to prepare accordingly. A ‘scattergun’ approach to applications for internships or work experience is rarely going to be as effective as well-thought-through, targeted and persistent approaches, and surely it is reasonable for young people to have some assistance in helping them define where they might be best placed to direct their efforts, taking into account not only their own perceptions of what might be feasible, but drawing on the insights and thoughtfulness of those who have gone before, and who have really, really taken the time to come to understand their journey thus far. In order to build trusting relationships with young people that will encourage them to start creating their own opportunities for the future, the adults around them need to understand them, and this understanding – to be built on strong foundations – arguably needs to reach right back to the beginnings of the journey of each young person. How to achieve this? Well … this would be mentoring on an epic scale … but do our young people not deserve this?

At the very least, as educators, parents and policy-makers, let us turn our minds more closely to the importance of connection and continuum … and let us see what creative thoughts emerge …