Ideas to improve school to work transition

Course: Design Thinking Action Lab, Stanford

Number of ideas: 50 +

Chosen ideas: 3

Ideas center around interaction among:

Students, teachers, education infrastructure, industry

experts, employers, companies and Parents.

Summited by: Sivaprasad.P

Date: August 13th, 2013

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Creative, articulate, confident, a little regretful, young media entrepreneur who found out what he really wants to become in career at a very young age needs a way at school so that he needs to study only those areas that would come in useful in his career because he has not figured it out why he needs to study certain courses like chemistry and languages other than English like Malayalam at school which have no use later in his career.”

Tasks that help explore career options

Career role plays

Options for students to mix and match what they learn in school

System picks up what is best in the interest of student

A syllabi that allows students to select career first and then learn backward

Play around and identify what suits best

Sites that describe careers as in “day in the life of a cop”

A syllabi that identifies career interests

Ideas Emerged

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Creative, articulate, confident, a little regretful, young media entrepreneur who found out what he really wants to become in career at a very young age needs a way at school so that he needs to study only those areas that would come in useful in his career because he has not figured it out why he needs to study certain courses like chemistry and languages other than English like Malayalam at school which have no use later in his career.”

Part time work that introduces and lead to career

Compulsory work as part of the course

Special marking for Real life Practical application during the course

Summer jobs that introduce career options

Internships that introduce and lead to careers

Visits by different professionals at school to explain what they do

Assignments that test different career skill sets

What If I am not interested in a career

Ideas Emerged - continued

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Creative, articulate, confident, a little regretful, young media entrepreneur who found out what he really wants to become in career at a very young age needs a way at school so that he needs to study only those areas that would come in useful in his career because he has not figured it out why he needs to study certain courses like chemistry and languages other than English like Malayalam at school which have no use later in his career.”

Certificate of mastery by government for various skills

Grants/tax cuts for businesses that employ students

Parental training at school to help identify skills in students

Special team to find talents in students

Stress on financial, business and entrepreneurial skills

School as a platform for exploring all the career options

Learn any combination of courses with a set of core courses

Creation of course and syllabi by industry experts

Ideas Emerged

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Creative, articulate, confident, a little regretful, young media entrepreneur who found out what he really wants to become in career at a very young age needs a way at school so that he needs to study only those areas that would come in useful in his career because he has not figured it out why he needs to study certain courses like chemistry and languages other than English like Malayalam at school which have no use later in his career.”

Stress on experiential learning and cut what to be learned

On the job training

Govt to bring out list of careers that has shortage of skills

Life skill trainingTests to identify student interests

Increase employability by volunteering, student societies etc

Encourage student entrepreneurships and business ventures.

Internal evaluations to help students reach careers

Ideas Emerged

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Creative, articulate, confident, a little regretful, young media entrepreneur who found out what he really wants to become in career at a very young age needs a way at school so that he needs to study only those areas that would come in useful in his career because he has not figured it out why he needs to study certain courses like chemistry and languages other than English like Malayalam at school which have no use later in his career.”

Career short films and exhibitions that help students know about career options

Colleges & school services to help students to find jobs

Have an active alumni that interact with students to carry them through S-W transition

Encourage students to come up with business models and start up ideas

Softwares to keep track of student activities and recommend career options

Special trainings to improve confidence of students to enter markets early.

Option for low academic performs to be employable by shining in other areas

Encourage students to have role models and follow their tracks

Ideas Emerged

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Creative, articulate, confident, a little regretful, young media entrepreneur who found out what he really wants to become in career at a very young age needs a way at school so that he needs to study only those areas that would come in useful in his career because he has not figured it out why he needs to study certain courses like chemistry and languages other than English like Malayalam at school which have no use later in his career.”

Allow companies to create courses as per their requirements

Make available skill sets suitable for different careers & ensure companies recruit based on that

Allow students to build a complete course by stitching together individual courses

Campus recruitmentGraduation not via academics but through skills in other areas

Continuing education & life long education

Allow students to fail and then succeed both professionally & academically

Encourage students to return to universities to further their career and be role models

Ideas Emerged

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Creative, articulate, confident, a little regretful, young media entrepreneur who found out what he really wants to become in career at a very young age needs a way at school so that he needs to study only those areas that would come in useful in his career because he has not figured it out why he needs to study certain courses like chemistry and languages other than English like Malayalam at school which have no use later in his career.”

Career based learning to suit large variety of careers

Compulsory employment to complete graduation

Companies get incentive if they employ low skilled labor

Bring a change in the public psyche that some jobs are good while others are inferior

Encourage career changes within organizations

Help people to experiments other lines of career in the same organization

Games to let people from one career experience other careers as well

Ideas Emerged

Chosen Ideas

1. Encourage companies to help staff to experience different career

options within the organisation

2. Encourage students to create their own courses

3. Let industry experts create courses as per their requirement

Inter company career change

• Intend of this idea is to encourage companies to allow staff to explore other lines of activities within the same organisation.

• This will help each individual to overcome the boredom of working in the same line for many years & to realize his/her latent skill sets and potential

Students create courses

• Intend of this idea is to encourage students to find out what their interests are and choose courses as per their interest and still work towards graduation.

• This factors in the scope for not liking certain courses by the students, so that he/she can stop taking them and start taking the courses and trainings that interest them most.

• This will help them identify the career path of their choice and prepare for it better through customizing courses that they study to get their graduation.

Industry experts create courses

• Intend of this idea is to encourage industry as such create employees that meet their business requirements.

• This will encourage both industry and academic institutions to work in concert towards optimizing the human resources.

• This will reduce the gap that exists between skill sets that industry requires and the skill sets what the students develop during the course of their graduation.

Thank you

sivaprasad2020 at gmail dot com