Future Flourishing: Preparing Students for the Workplace

When thinking about flourishing students, educators need to focus on both now and in the future. Our school's strategic planning team is considering the phrase ... "students will flourish now and in tomorrow's world." This dual-focused objective is quite a challenge, in fact, a true BHAG (big, hairy, audacious goal) as Collins and Porras described in their book, Built to Last (2004).

Future-Focused Flourishing

Backward design (UbD, Wiggins & McTighe, 2005) is a common educational structure that encourages teachers to think teleologically; essentially, first consider the end result and then design learning experiences that best achieve that result. We need to do that also with student flourishing.

Being future-focused about flourishing is vital, especially as students enter an ever-changing world. What does a flourishing person look like in tomorrow's world? What do schools need to focus on in order to help students flourish in the future? I'll guarantee it is different than what schools focused in the past (and even currently).

An additional challenge is that future flourishing involves many spheres ... flourishing in the workplace, flourishing in the home, flourishing in the community (and more). To truly thrive in life, a person must flourish in all spheres.

This article will discuss how schools can prepare students to flourish in the future workplace.

The Workplace

An aspect of education must prepare students for work. Academically, schools (especially high schools) prepare students to be admitted into college. Logically, schools prepare students to enter colleges; colleges, then, prepare students with the content/skills needed to enter the workplace. Unfortunately, college-prep high schools often neglect "work preparation" hiding behind the "college-prep" mantra. High schools also need to focus on work prep, or a better term, "calling prep." Students should be considering their vocation (calling) early in their middle school or high school education ... and then charting a path to facilitate flourishing within that calling.

Additionally, employers are longing for employees with soft skills that are becoming more important than content knowledge. What are the "soft skills" needed to flourish in the workplace? I truly believe our workplace standards have been lowered, but here are just a few essential qualities that will help students be successful in the workplace:

• Show up (on time). Employers are frustrated by employees who don't show up or show up late. Just show up on time, and you will distinguish yourself in the workplace. Okay, that is a low bar, but the more I talk with employers, the more I hear of this frustration.
• Be Learning Centered. Employees are stepping into an ever-changing world of work, and many current jobs will be unrecognizable in the future. Therefore, flourishing employees will be life-long learners who are able to adapt and change to meet the changing workplace climate.
• Collaborate well with colleagues. Every employer and employee expresses frustration with colleagues who don't "play nice" with others. Collaboration will always be on the top of the "soft skills" needed to flourish in the workplace.
• Care about the Company. Employees who believe in the mission and overall success of the company will work diligently to accomplish goals, strive to be innovative to improve efficiency and effectiveness, treat customers in such a way to build long term relationships, and will refrain from wasting resources that will impact the bottom line.

So what elements or learning experiences are needed in school to prepare students to flourish in the workplace?

• Learning Focused. While this sounds like something that schools will naturally develop; few schools are truly learning focused. Most schools teach students how to "play school" to get the grade at the detriment of true learning. Schools must re-emphasize (non-graded) curiosity research, discovery learning, and learning expeditions. 
• Calling Identification. Students need to identify their strengths/gifts/interests and explore how to use these in different workplaces. This can be done through interest inventories, skill assessments, and personality/strengths identification, along with job shadows, career days, and internships. Identifying strengths and how they fit into the workplace will help students identify colleges/vocational training and be more content as future employees as they uncover where they "fit" in the sphere of work.
• Attendance Matters. Dealing with student attendance is a frustrating aspect of most school administrators, but encouraging students to understand the importance of attendance (i.e. just show up and get to class on time) will help them flourish in the workplace. Future employers will thank you for instilling this low-bar objective of attendance.
• Teamwork Development. Classrooms today are very individualistic and competitive as students strive for high honors of gpa/class rank, leaving their fellow students behind. Similarly, a lower percentage of students are participating in collaborative activities as athletic teams become more competitive and recreational activities are more individualistic. Students need to be placed in collaborative learning situations to grow in their teamwork skills; these can be inside the classroom, in leadership programs, in clubs, or on athletic teams. This will help them flourish in the workplace.
• Innovative and Entrepreneurship Thinking. Flourishing workplaces are filled with innovative employees who problem-solve with entrepreneurship thinking. Employees must be able to identify problems, come up with creative solutions, and implement those action steps to achieve a desired result. Problem-based learning must be a part of education at all levels to encourage flourishing employees.

This is just a start, but hopefully a good step forward in thinking about how schools can help students flourish in their future workplaces.