Recognising the rounded person: Ignored skills acknowledged

Once upon a time, when black-and-white televisions were generally rented and butter was spared, planning a career path was straightforward enough. Go to school, get your exams — solely academic exams — and eventually get a job.

Those certainties, for so long bulwarks of our social construct, no longer apply as the nature of work today and the nature of tomorrow’s work are more difficult than ever to define.

No-one really knows how their children will make a living, most of us have no idea how our grandchildren will work and live. It does seem certain though that they will not be completely defined by traditional academic programmes.

This change was recognised yesterday when Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone, in conjunction with the National Youth Council of Ireland and Accenture, launched a programme to make employers aware of the non-academic skills students acquire during school years.

They want to promote the rounded person, not just the student. This is more important than is immediately obvious, as 65% of children starting school this year will work in jobs that do not yet exist. The programme has the added attraction of reaching beyond the narrow — but fair — points system, a process that may have funneled young people in a certain, too-narrow direction.

This scheme is progress writ large as talent comes in many shapes and sizes — just like our children — and we do ourselves a disservice by not accepting that.