Skills for Tomorrow\'s Employees: What

¶ … Skills for Tomorrow's Employees: What can be done to bring young people into the workplace and be productive?

Developing Skills for Tomorrow's Employees:

What can be done to bring young people into the workplace and make them productive?

While there are many things that can be done to help young people develop skills, get into the workplace, and continue to be productive, education is one of the most valuable - and the most overlooked. Those who operate at the highest level in education today are often avoiding doing, or are unable to do, everything that they would like in order to ensure that their pupils learn all that they can and take their education seriously. It is clear, however, that education is the key to a bright future in the workplace for these young people, and in light of that principals are the individuals whom society needs to turn to. Principals have rather difficult jobs and many people are choosing to take other career paths because principals are often overworked and underpaid individuals who must deal with many individuals on a daily basis (Ediger, 2002). The stresses of the job can be very upsetting and it takes the right kind of individual to really do the job properly. Right now, though, there is clearly an opportunity for many school districts to get new principals and use them to reform some problems that are being dealt with at various schools around the country (Rice, 1993).

Because the work of principals is so very complex and demanding, applications for the job have been down (Peterson & Kelley, 2001). Principals must be able to do a multitude of things in any given day, including providing leadership, working with teachers, dealing with budgets, and working with parents of children that appear to be problematic or disruptive (Ediger, 2002). Because of the fact that principals' must do many other jobs than what they were previously used to, a strong pool of applicants must be found for these jobs (Rice, 1993). It is also true that these principals, once hired, need mentoring and other activities that can help them to do the best job that they can for the students (Peterson & Kelley, 2001). There are several approaches that are currently being utilized in bringing new principals into the field and making sure that they are getting the training that they need to be effective (Rice, 1993). Most of this is vitally important in urban districts where massive amount of retirements are causing shortages in all kinds of areas, including principals and other school leadership figures.

Rural districts are also experiencing difficulties, not because of retirements, but because many schools do not really have the funds that they need to provide for the principals and others that they are trying to hire (Peterson & Kelley, 2001). This makes finding good quality people difficult and ultimately shortchanges the students because the money is not available to acquire the people that will do the most for the students in their care. One of the ways that principals can be assessed is to look at how the students are doing (Ediger, 2002). If the students in a particular school continue to make academic gains and there are few problems with disruptive students and inappropriate behavior then it would appear that the principal is doing his or her job correctly (Peterson & Kelley, 2001). Schools that show poor test scores and many other problems may indicate ineffectiveness on the part of the principal, and this should be examined and studied to determine whether the principal is the actual cause for this or whether there are other problems that the principal is facing in the school (Ediger, 2002).

All of the achievements that the principal has attained during his or her time at the school may also be important to the assessment (Ediger, 2002). These give an indication of whether the principal has continually worked to make things better, or whether he or she is simply riding along, hoping that nothing serious will go wrong so that trouble will not follow (Peterson & Kelley, 2001). Principals who are interested in continued achievement also often talk to their teachers about how to make instruction better and more interesting for the students. If the students are not being stimulated by the material that they are presented with there may be new and better ways to present this material (Peterson & Kelley, 2001). While there are curriculum guidelines that must be adhered to, there are many opportunities for adjusting some of the lessons learned in order to ensure that the students retain an interest in the subject matter (Peterson & Kelley, 2001).