“It’s not just hard skills. It’s about those soft skills. They (businesses) want people who have the imaginative, creative mindset.”
Deloitte Adelaide Managing Partner, Hendri Mentz
In a rapidly evolving world, it is hard to be able to predict what the future of work will be in the next five years, let alone the next decade. Yet, we ask our students to make curriculum choices that may have a major impact on their future employability.
That is why, at St Columba, we imbue all of our teaching and learning with a focus on developing not only knowledge, but the skills that will allow our graduates to be successful in their career future.
“This creative thinking isn’t just a nice to have’”
We aim to provide our students with the skills and agility that allow them to adapt in a rapidly changing world and its rapidly evolving workplaces.
The problems faced in businesses and organisations of tomorrow will often not “play by the rules” of yesterday and today.
To solve future problems our graduates will need innovative, imaginative and often “left-field” thinking to be part of the solution.
Take a look at our St Columba Facebook posts and you will find that our students are involved in hands-on experiments, design thinking, entrepreneurial development, imaginative exercises and leadership skill development.
Activities that activate our students’ natural curiosity and promote the willingness to learn new things that will be the foundation of their future success.
Our school has a proud history of graduates who have been able to take advantage of their St Columba education to grasp opportunities that have given them personal and career success.
We want that to continue, but in the words of one of my favourite quotes:
“For things to remain the same, everything must change.”
That means, as a school and learning community, we have to model for our students the concept of seeking to learn new and better ways of doing things.
There is no sense in telling students to develop the attitude of lifelong learning if they do not see this embodied in their school.
“We need to train up the right people to create solutions for businesses of the future. We can’t just take the solution of yesterday, we need the solutions of tomorrow.”
In an increasingly internationalised community and competitive workplace, we want our students to stand out and be noticed as great potential employees, business owners and community leaders.
And why is that so important to us? Because that’s why we exist:
School Vision
At St Columba we will transform the lives of our students by offering the educational opportunities that will allow them to have lives of purpose, service and engagement.
Enough said!
Want to share your thoughts on this story, or do you have something you’d like to add? Email me at principal@scas.nsw.edu.au