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What Can Schools Do to Reduce the Increasing Skills Gap Caused by COVID_19

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What can schools do to reduce the increasing skills gap caused by covid_19 | what can schools do to reduce the increasing skills gap caused by covid_19 | edupulse magazine
What Can Schools Do to Reduce the Increasing Skills Gap Caused by COVID_19 | What Can Schools Do to Reduce the Increasing Skills Gap Caused by COVID_19 | EduPulse Magazine

With COVID-19 shutting down schools temporarily, online learning seems to be the new mantra, but something is missing. There will soon be a considerable learning slide among students. The reason is simple. Online learning builds academic skills. What about the skills that students learn outside the classroom? 

Outside the classroom, students sharpen their survival abilities, understand real-world problems and prepare for life after school. They encounter curveballs that make exams seem pretty easy in comparison! Workplaces are complex, shape-shifting and competitive spaces. Similarly, relationships can be tricky and confusing to understand. 

This is where excellent extra-curricular programs and student clubs make a difference. They give children experiential learning experiences. Students learn to master social and emotional skills. They collaborate and learn that they need to work on those relationships. They learn empathy and take a bite out of real-life work experiences and acquire critical 21st-century skills.

Most importantly, they learn how to bounce back after failure. With schools forsaking or limiting extra-curricular activities, the gap between academics and the real world will widen.  

Right now, the online learning market is flooded with hobby classes and stand-alone mentorship programs, but the gap still exists. Online lessons will continue because many parents will always be cautious about sending their kids to school, so student engagement will again face a downswing. Teacher fatigue will be familiar. There will inherently be gaps in continuity and student engagement.  

More than ever, students will need to embrace upskilling, which will be a significant force in the skills market of the future. Students must learn 21st-century skills, such as critical and systems thinking. There is a need for online programs on entrepreneurship skills, takes students right into the workplace of the future. 

Skills like how to run ad campaigns, understand value propositions, conduct game-changing research, launch an app and identify patterns in their area of work. All batch sizes will need to be small and perfect for optimal learning. 

Such initiatives and programs will set students on track to meeting the Future of Work headlong and will teach them to adapt to a brave new world. 

Edu Pulse Magazine brings you up-to-the-minute reports on the latest developments, insightful commentary and novel perspectives on what’s new and what’s next in education and technology (EdTech).

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