The Best of Both Worlds: 5 Ideas for Teachers and Adult Trainers
Taking part in SSE’s Scale Up programme has been great for me. SSE’s approach has been carefully developed: it involves self-discovery, peer support and a lot of learning from failure. My wife jokes that it’s like Alcoholics Anonymous, but for social entrepreneurs (‘Hi, I’m Tom and I have a work problem…’). As a teacher, I can’t help but think how different it is to what generally takes place in schools.
While we spend plenty of time in the early years focussing on a child’s social skills and emotional development, this generally ebbs away as they reach secondary school. Too often, our school system prioritises exam results to the exclusion of almost everything else. Yet when employers are asked what they want, they are looking for well-rounded individuals. They want to employ staff with strong communication and social skills, a positive work ethic, and the ability to apply their knowledge – of maths or IT, for example – in practice. Furthermore, this is the kind of training that adults typically get sent on – courses on leadership, customer service or presentation skills.
