Stanford Design Thinking Challenge - Empathize and Define School Degree Job - Does this path make sense today?

1.  Go to school, get your degree, get a job.
 Does this traditional path from education to
employment make sense today ?
 The challenge is to redesign
the school-to-work transition.

2.  Does the process work well?
◦ Depends on what the employer is looking for.
◦ Current process (degree) shows student is able to
commit and has adequate knowledge for specialist
occupations (eg medicine, engineering) but still
need hands-on skills.
◦ Most jobs require the ability to research, be
creative, problem solve, communicate, and
collaborate. These are skills not always learnt in the
school/university environment.

3.  How can this be done?
◦ Requires lots more industry input
◦ Students need to be dabbling with issues in the
real world
◦ Current system doesn’t teach the complete skill
set needed to go from student to employee.
 What skills are these?
◦ Real people social skills,
◦ Ability to cope mentally (being able to deal with
demands, knock backs and failures).

4.  What needs to happen to help the process
change?
◦ Industry placement. Allow students to have
experiences in the real world.
 Do you see any issues with this?
◦ Not all parts of the system are willing to change to be
able to meet the needs of the future global citizen.
◦ Universities and Schools need to be more open and
get involved with industry (possibly through
partnerships)
◦ May need to get government to incentivise or legislate
to bring parties together.

5.  Current process is OK but not great
 Real life skills needed.
 Special skills needed in being able to work
with people you don’t know, maybe don’t
like.
 Students need a different social skill set to
participate with industry then they get at
school.

6.  Government involvement may be seen as “big
stick”
 Maybe government could lead by example.
 The 3 systems: schools, universities and industry
currently work like “siloed departments” within
poorly run companies.

7.  Industry needs to see this as future
revenue/profit.
 Industry could see this as a community /
philanthropy exercise.
 Message that says “companies who use the
new partnership with education facilities are
likely to be more successful”.

8.  Industry is too busy surviving and trying to
make profits to integrate into the education
system – need to see an advantage in this
to proceed.
 There is the beginning of the “new world”
starting with universities and industry
partnering. Not yet there with schools.
 This process needs to be seen as a win, win
for all involved.

9.  My stakeholder is a thought leader within the
school system who is passionate about
teaching beyond the subjects. They see
education as moulding students who are
resilient, independent and skilled at adapting
to the real world no matter where they go in
their life.
 They need a way to provide students with
experiences that provide the additional skills
obtained through real life experiences that will
ensure students are able to cope with
confidence, both work wise and personally.

10. In doing this we will
 Create students who will easily adapt to the
workforce.
 Have students that are valued by industry.
 Have students that are able to feel they are
contributing, which will have health benefits for
them and also to the economy of the country.
 Have an industry that will be seen as
contributing to their community by coaching
and expanding the horizons, and experience of
future employees and those in the community
around them.