I am the bearer of bad news. By the time your child finishes her specialist degree, it will be out of date. In fact, the very idea of a disciplinary degree is becoming worthless around the world. The head of one of the largest university libraries in the world does not have an LIS (library and information science) degree. The leader of one the largest banks in another country has a general arts degree without a single commercial subject in her background. One of the most successful journalists in SA does not have a media studies degree.
What is going on? Quite simply, the world has changed.
The 100 young people I was asked to address this week are the lucky ones. They get tagged by the untidy term “neither in education, employment or training” (NEET). For various reasons most of the members of this energetic and smart group of youth did not or could not access university after finishing matric — some did not have money for studies and others were undecided on careers. Now they are doing a “gap year” as teaching assistants in poor schools (four days a week) and learning the art of leadership (one day a week) as part of a university initiative. In other words, the essential skills they need for the prince of professions are learnt on the job under the mentorship of experienced and senior teachers.
I tried to inspire the group with a talk, the title of which was adapted from one of my favourite books, Three Things I Know for Sure” — you are smarter than you think; nobody gets very far with magical thinking; and successful students use social networks to advance their careers.
Because of their immersion in teaching practice, some of these young South Africans have decided to become teachers. They are fortunate because the last thing these students need is a stuffy degree from a university in which their heads are pumped full of Piaget or Palladio.
Don’t get me wrong. I love theory. But I would prefer that students acquire learning theory in the classroom and architectural theory on a building site. More importantly, learning in the 21st century should be about a broad set of competencies rather than a narrow set of skills. This is why I still think a general BA degree over two years should be a requirement for all students in which they learn to read a range of books from science and the humanities; where they are taught to develop technological solutions to everyday problems; and in the course of which they learn to make woke arguments about climate change, smart cities and bullet trains (if you get my drift).
What is valued today is a student who has mastered what is being called the 6Cs of the education of the future: think critically, communicate clearly, use connectivity, develop creativity, work collaboratively and embrace culture. A specialist degree hardly does that in an archaic system that fills students with facts and where the primary obligation of a lecturer is to cover (up?) the curriculum. Our standard-issue degrees are becoming worthless, especially with our tendency to assess a student’s capacity for memorisation rather than imagination.
So when your child finishes high school, consider a gap year. Put them in a work-learning space in which they can expand their education before they are press-ganged into mass education under the impression that a specialist degree carries much value. Relax when the children tell you they are unclear about what to study; that’s a good thing, actually. Let them experiment with an internship at the local museum or a customer-service job on a cruise ship.
Which brings me to the school (and university) holidays under way as we speak. I cannot think of a more useless time in the lives of young people sitting at home, playing computer games or lying on a beach in the northern hemisphere if your parents can afford it. In my other country, this is the time when students find summer jobs working in a professor’s lab or volunteering at the local newspaper. In other words, there is no better time to broaden your education, discover what you like doing and build one or more of those 6C competencies even before embarking on the routines of degree studies.
Shortly after I addressed the group of 100 students I received an e-mail from one of the group: “My eyes have been opened … I want to study hospitality and become a chef. Can you help me?” She communicates clearly. She writes evocatively. She has a sense of purpose. And she uses her networks.
If it’s the last thing I do, I am going to make sure Nwabisa becomes a chef — starting with an internship in the kitchens of SA’s most inspiring chefs.
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