Developing workforce skills

When students learn to write a business letter these days, their teachers often aren't aware that most business correspondence uses e-mail a dramatically different medium than the traditional business letter.

Businesses and individual business people need to play a leadership role in ensuring that schools teach the skills that students actually will need in the workplace, says Willard Daggett, president of the International Center for Leadership in Education.

But, Daggett acknowledged in a telephone interview last week, the divide between business and educators usually is so wide that successful efforts generally begin with just a handful of people who are able to talk openly with one another.

Daggett will share his thoughts about schools and the development of workforce skills during the Directions 2005 conference Feb.

4.

The annual event is hosted by the Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada.

Business, he said last week, plays two key roles:

* Raising the awareness of educators, parents and other in the community about the skills needed in the 21st century workplace.

* Helping educators to define those skills so they can be taught.

The effort, he said, needs to begin with frank discussion about the gap between what schools are teaching and what students need in the workplace.

"Business and industry need to make a concerted effort to get school board members and educators to talk about the gap," Daggett said."Business needs to find a way to get that message out to the educators."

At the same time, he acknowledged those efforts initially will be difficult because of mistrust between school officials and the business community.

"Educators often don't have a great respect for the business community.

And vice versa,"Daggett said.

While business leaders often think educators are out of touch with the real world, educators believe that business people want to dumb down the curriculum to meet workplace requirements.

"But the academic standards for entrylevel workers are higher than they are for college entrance," Daggett said.

With that level of mistrust, he said, successful efforts generally begin with a small group often only one educator and one business person who can talk respectfully.

"You don't bring the whole world together," Daggett said."It becomes an evolutionary process, not a revolutionary process."

At the same time, he said, each community needs to find its own way.

"There is no one model,"Daggett said."It depends on what your local dynamics are."

Before he founded the International Center for Leadership in Education in 1991, Daggett was a high school and college teacher and administrator.

He's consulted with hundreds of school districts on improvement projects and has written numerous books about learning and education.