If you have children who are currently working their way through the school system, have you ever stopped to think about how our education system came to be the way it is today? As a digital entrepreneur I'd hoped that my children's school would prepare them to make a balanced choice between a more traditional career or business ownership. But what I found was quite the opposite.
I hadn't given it much thought either, until I started my own business and realised that I was totally ill-equipped for the realities of working for myself. So I started to do some research and I realised that compulsory, universal education was introduced as a way to educate former farm labourers and prepare them for life on the factory floor. We've come a long way since the Industrial Revolution and our children aren't being moulded into subservient machine operatives any more, but there's still a very definite emphasis on sending children down the accepted path of school – university – job.
But what about the rising number of gig workers and entrepreneurs? It's estimated that by 2021 almost half the workforce will be self-employed - that's only a couple of years away so our schools should be focussing on that shift and spending less time pushing children into pigeon holes that won't work in the future. So what should schools be focussing on to help our children thrive when they enter the modern workforce?
Not too long ago I made a decision to create an online coaching business. It aligned perfectly with who I wanted to serve and how I wanted to blend my personal and professional life. So what did I do? I enlisted the help of a coach who could get me there. I very excitedly looked at all my materials in front of me, scanned through all the online tools I was going to have to master (many of which I had never heard of previously), and looked the time frame I had to complete it all in. And then it happened.
Help to design the life they want
If your school had a career's department or advisor you'll probably remember having an enormous encyclopedia of every job and corresponding further education course available land in your lap. You were probably told to browse the directory, pick a job and then choose the right degree or NVQ you needed to get you there. That's great if, at the age of 15 – you already have a burning desire to be an engineer or a surgeon but the reality is that most teenagers don't have a clue what they want. I know I didn't.
We were told that if we wanted to squeeze in to the right career box we had to make massive life decisions at a time when we were too busy deciding on whether to start wearing mascara to school or not. It was only after a lot of independent soul-searching, at the age of almost 30, that I realised I didn't want to fit into a box.
But I thought the only way to do that was to say "screw you" to working and become a stay at home mum - if I wasn't going to be an employee, I'd have to fall out of the workforce completely. Now I know that, as an entrepreneur, it's absolutely possible to work in a way that fits around the life I want, but that's something I had to figure out on my own. And it took me a long time to get there. So rather than asking children what they want to be when they grow up, schools should start with the question "what kind of life do you want when you grow up?" By asking this question our children will see that there are other possibilities out there besides picking a job title and shaping themselves to fit.
Business Basics
During secondary school I had a vague inkling that I wanted to run my own business one day, so I chose A-Level Business Studies, thinking that it would give me the tools I'd need. What I soon found out was that Business Studies wasn't about teaching students to set up their own business, it was about teaching students how to become
the factory foreman or the middle manager of a large corporation.
It's no wonder business survival rates in this country are less than 50%. Even a course which should be teaching children about business, isn't doing what it says on the tin. Children should be given a basic understanding of assessing the feasibility of their ideas, product-market fit, identifying ideal customers, time management etc, instead of learning about out-dated HR management theories.
Mental Resilience
Running your own business is a whole different kettle of fish to being an employee and I see so many entrepreneurs dealing with anxiety and stress-related problems when they go it alone. A huge part of working for yourself is having the mental strength to deal with failure and fear – issues which I rarely experienced when I worked for someone else because there was always the safety net of a guaranteed salary even if my ideas didn't work out.
Schools are picking up on the need to discuss mental health issues with our children, but it tends to focus around social. media and self-esteem, rather than coaching them to build resilience and overcome fear.
Relationship-building and Social Skills
When you're browsing job advertisements, "ability to work as part of a team"; is often pretty high on the list of personal qualities that companies are looking for.
It makes perfect sense if you're going to work in an established business with large groups working together on projects.
But what if you're working on your own? Teamwork isn't going to serve you particularly well if you're a solopreneur or freelancer. At school, we were taught team sports, subjected to team-building activities like the Duke of Edinburgh Awards and made to work on group projects, so we could learn how to work together to get things done.
What we weren't taught was how to generate interesting conversations with complete strangers, how to network, or establish trust amongst our peers or potential clients. All of these skills are critical for entrepreneurs who aren't working as a part of a team but need strong relationship- building skills to set up joint ventures and generate new leads. It's probably why so many business owners are so bad at it and jump straight into self-promotion and spamming new contacts!
With the speed of the changes in our workforce there needs to be a big shift in the way that schools prepare our children for what lies ahead. With more and more people working for themselves, it's time for them to ditch the path to the factory floor and educate our children in what it takes for them to build the life they want and give them to skills they need to get there.
Anna Iveson is an entrepreneur, mother to three children and campaigner for work freedom. She has just launched VAzoom - an online community connecting entrepreneurs with virtual assistants.
www.vazoom.co.uk.
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