FIVE IMPORTANT SKILLS YOUR TEENAGER SHOULD BE TAUGHT IN HIGH SCHOOL
Why personal development matters in modern education
The world is moving faster than ever. Technological innovations come out every day that change the way we operate, from simple tasks like writing to more complex events like entertainment. Even larger job-related skills are quickly being converted into automated flows with robotics, AI, and machine learning.
A lot of these new developments excite our young people – and they should. It’s the world they’ll be living and working in. But as they get excited and plan to take their next steps after high school, are they going to be truly prepared to enter university and the job market? As educators, we’ve seen a growing problem: education that ignores the student’s personal development.
Here are five skills we think your teenager should be taught (and continuously work on) beginning in high school:
Time Management
Learning time management as a skill enables your son or daughter to effectively and efficiently divide their time between different activities, thus maximizing how effective their efforts are. A person who understands the value of their time understands the value of their tasks. They’ll be able to decide if something must be done, delayed, delegated, or deleted from their schedule. Learning this at a young age will help to balance assignments, exams, and additional responsibilities like work or family. And of course, these habits will carry over to university, helping their experience to feel more under their control. Practicing effective time management as a teenager will make this extremely valuable skill second nature when they enter the job market.
Bigger Picture Thinking
With the rapid changes we previously discussed, everyone is thinking about the future and wondering what it will look like. When your son or daughter is taught to see a challenge, goal, or idea in a broader vision, then break down the abstract concept into what actually needs to be done to accomplish the idea, they’re practicing bigger-picture thinking. This skill is a strategy that focuses on the entirety of what’s to come instead of obsessing over the details or the unknowns that might feel overwhelming. Anytime they feel overwhelmed, stopping to ask, ‘What am I really moving towards with my actions?’ will help them to refocus, realign, and understand the importance of their current movement.
Grit, Passion, and Determination
Many people will say grit can’t be taught, but we disagree. We absolutely believe that grit exists in all of us and sometimes, just needs to be nurtured and encouraged. Often times young people fail to develop grit, or the passion and determination needed to achieve long-term and meaningful goals, simply because they’re told they have all the time in the world to accomplish what they want. While they may, this is a huge disservice because grit, passion, and determination are not simply how badly they want to achieve something, nor are these important skills a symbol of their natural talent. Instead, grit, passion, and determination are harnessing the power behind wanting a goal so badly that you choose to organize and structure your actions in such a meaningful way that to fail would almost be impossible. When a young person is nurtured and shown they can develop such focused intensity, their sheer determination can often overtake someone else’s natural born talent. Grit comes from high levels of self-control and self-consciousness. If your son or daughter can control and use these to empower their growth, the challenges of the future might not seem so intimidating.
Empathic Exchange
Communication is hard and with the digitalization of conversations through text, messenger, and social media, we’ve seen young people who have lost the ability to read body language or understand unspoken communication. In the classroom and in the job market, we have expectations for professional and pragmatic conduct. These are rooms and spaces where emotions create more challenges than comfort, and can often create conflict when one doesn’t understand how to be a part of the larger conversation taking place outside of just the words being spoken. When your son or daughter learns how to hold empathic exchanges, they can change or impact the direction or even person of the conversation. Empathic exchange helps to build relationships, trust, and more honest conversations. From speaking with their teachers to leading extracurricular activities to networking and even interviewing for their first internship, this skill will be invaluable in their personal development journey.
Communication
We’ve listed communication last because it’s largely touched and impacted by the four previously mentioned skills in this list. Any form of speaking, writing, or any other medium our young people are exposed to, such as social media, sends a message that helps them to define who they are and how they want to interact with other people. When we say we need to teach the young people in our lives to be better communicators, we don’t mean train them to speak. We mean teach them to have the confidence to develop their own style of expressing their points, to stand up and do so with their head held high, and have confidence in their opinions, knowledge, and belief systems. Effective communication builds stronger relationships and helps your son or daughter to express their feelings and thoughts in a more efficient manner. The stronger their communication skills, the more likely they are to stand up for themselves, ask for help, or stand up for their beliefs in the classroom and job market.
All five of the above skills are strong as individual learning points, but when paired together, will create a truly dynamic, capable, and confident human. The next time you have the opportunity to speak to those educating your teenager, ask them what they’re doing to help your son or daughter develop these five crucial skills (time management, bigger picture thinking, grit passion and determination, empathic exchange, and communication).
At Globe Business College Munich, these five skills are the cornerstone of our educational philosophy. In 2006 we had the vision of creating a third level business college in Munich that combines the Irish and German approaches to education. The dream back then was to develop students who can combine the science and art of business. So graduates, who in addition to their formal academic qualifications, have the ability to think on their feet, operate in dynamic environments, have great people skills, communication abilities and are driven by a growth mind-set. That vision has materialised into a college that is filled with individual students who benefit every day from a unique educational approach. This uniqueness comes from the fact that at the core of everything we do is a relationship model that puts the individual at the centre.
Now we also offer our Golden Ticket Weekend workshop for students aged 16-19. Over the course of the weekend, they not only get an introduction to business with our special VIP network of company owners, mentors, coaches, and actors, they start their personal development on these five skills. The weekend is held on campus in Munich or on your child’s campus thanks to our generous network of sponsors and alumni who experienced our education first-hand.
For more information, go to Golden Ticket Weekend or Globe College. Let’s open the conversation for how we can become your partner in your son or daughters success.
Globe College is a Club Vivanova Platinum Partner.
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