What skills and qualifications do young people need to develop today in order to flourish in the world of tomorrow?
If this question were posed to students and employers alike, the response might vary. But a certain pattern would emerge. Most people would admit that, first of all, academic excellence is one important part of the foundation for future success. However, employers emphasize that the days when academic excellence alone was enough to guarantee success later in life are long gone.
In the global economy of the 21st century, which is taking huge leaps forward propelled by the booming communications industry, it is increasingly apparent that academic education alone is not enough. To compete in the global economy of tomorrow, youngsters need to develop an entirely new portfolio of life skills. Teamwork, problem solving, information technology and the capacity to constantly keep learning are all vital ingredients of that portfolio. Those go hand in hand with what is perhaps the most important life skill of all: The ability to handle the constant change inherent in a fast‑moving international economy.
Employers, universities and schools all over the world are increasingly becoming aware of the value of such skills, and what’s more, are looking for such skills among prospective employees or students. That is precisely the reasoning behind a program that has brought me and three other high‑school students from Wycliffe College in Gloucestershire, England, to Kyiv to gain experience working in multinational companies. The program was initiated by the school’s headmaster, Tony Collins. He partnered with Business Link, a local firm specializing in business training for multinational companies.
The program is debuting this year, but Headmaster Collins hopes to send students back to Ukraine and send more students to more countries in future years. Next year he hopes to be sending students to companies in Japan, Western Europe and Eastern Europe. The scope of participating companies will also broaden.
Students in Kyiv on the program get training in a whole range of life skills. They stay with native Ukrainian families and participate in a program called “Awareness and leadership skills in an international team.” But the core of the program is the work‑placement program. We have all been posted in two‑week internships in multinational companies based in Kyiv. Participating firms are the Kyiv Post, Business Link, Ukraina Hotel and Deloitte and Touche.
Students arrived in Kyiv on July 14 and were taken to their host families. The work placements started the following Monday, July 16, and were constantly monitored by Business Link and a psychologist assigned to monitor the group of students. Business Link provided guidance on overcoming certain cultural and opinion differences that may occur. The most obvious difference is the lack of spoken English in the homes of most host families. For those who don’t speak Russian, the easiest question easily turns into a complex game of charades that might easily result in the question being misunderstood. National food contrasts markedly with the fish and chips that we are used to in England. In order to co‑exist, either the family has to adapt to the student’s taste or the student has to eat borsch. In more cases than not, the student eats borscht.
The workplace presents a different kind of challenge. In the workplace you are forced to quickly master new skills. You must be flexible enough to handle both grunt work and more challenging pursuits. And once again you must overcome language differences.
Our experience brings us into contact with people that do not necessarily speak our language, do not share our way of thinking, and generally live differently than we do. The ability to deal with such differences is priceless in today’s global economy, and it is something that employers all over the world will increasingly look for in the future. Although globalization is vigorously opposed by many in today’s world, the reality is that in the future we will find ourselves working more and more with people of different cultures. By starting to educate the young people today on how to understand and work with their counterparts abroad, surely we can build a more humane and civilized world for tomorrow.
A native Russian, Dmitry Kharin lives in Prague and attends Wycliffe College, a boarding school in Gloucestershire, England.
