A Shift From Classroom to Career

For all the years spent in school preparing to enter the workplace, many recent graduates say that they struggle with the shift from classroom to career world and have difficulty adjusting to life on the job.

Writer and editor Joseph Lewis believes that most of our school experiences are fairly predictable, while life in the working world is far more uncertain. In school, for example, the pattern stays more or less the same from year to year. In the workplace, however, constant change is the norm, and one has to adapt quickly.

Another problem is that in school, many students spend a lot of time memorizing facts and repeating what they "learned" on tests. But in the workplace employees “are often expected to think critically and make decisions about their work, not just follow a supervisor's instructions." Less time needs to be spent in school on testing, says one recent report, and more on helping students to analyze information, solve problems, and communicate their ideas effectively.

Finally, in the workplace, employees must regularly interact with others and are often dependent on their co-workers for their success. In other words, if an employee has to work with others to complete a given project, that employee's success not only depends on his hard work and expertise, but also on how well his colleagues perform.

How can we better prepare young adults for the workplace?It is suggested that students should do an internship while they are in school. Volunteering part time at a company, hospital or government organization, for example, can help them                                 gain experience and learn skills. Doing these will help prepare students for the realities of the workplace and make the transition from school to career world less stressful.

We hear a lot about team building these days.Team-building experts are hired by some corporations to lecture us on how to work more effectively with each other.And they organise awaydays-a time employees spend together away from their usual workplace.

Here in the UK,employees can take part in activities such as Zombie boot camps where military instructors train you how to fight walking “dead people”.For the brainier office workers amongst us there are crime investigations modelled on popular TV dramas like Sherlock Holmes and CSI.

Stressed-out city workers might have ukulele lessons made available to them.Why is that a good team-building exercise?Ukulele teacher Lorraine Bow says,“The fact that they can play a musical instrument within an hour is quite a fulfilling thing,really.It’s not competitive-it’s quite easy to do and a bit less intimidating than a guitar...”

Actually,a horse might be a bit more intimidating than an instrument.The animals are used by a company in Abu Dhabi which teaches leadership through horse training.Basically,you have to go in a yard with a horse and persuade it that you’re the boss by using body language.

Kelly Eide,co-founder of True Leadership,says,“The horses don’t care if your hair is purple,if you’re a man or a woman,if you’re old or young...It transcends (超越) all of those cultural boundaries-age,gender,religion,tradition,etc.-so that’s a perfect fit.And in an organisation where you really need groups of people to gel (相互磨合),who come from different backgrounds which have no common norms,you can teach that most efficiently with a horse.”

And the horse feels instinctively whether or not you are a natural leader.So if after you’ve done a good presentation your boss offers you a carrot,you’ll know where he might have learnt it from.

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