Professional Learning for Busy Educators

Up until a decade or two ago, most companies took a standardised approach to hire talents. The HR department posted a detailed job analysis along with a list of skill sets required for the role. This was followed by a shortlisting of potential candidates based on their professional and personal backgrounds. And, the last step involved the extensive interview process which often went for over a month. Cut to 2019; the recruitment industry has undergone a massive transformation. 

With the workforce becoming increasingly globalized, the hiring process, too, has changed drastically to meet the requirements of new generation jobs. These changing times mandate a shift in how companies hire and retain talents. In today’s increasingly digital era, hiring managers are looking beyond the academic qualifications of candidates. Despite the fuss over grades, good grades alone are not enough. There is an increasing emphasis on skills such as design thinking, problem-solving, adaptability and empathy – all of which are indispensable to current as well as future job roles

At first glance, it looks as though the group of young adults is building Lego. But these are actually students at the University of Cape Town’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design Thinking, and they’re using the colourful blocks to design a prototype. It represents policy reform ideas around transitioning from informal to formal economies. It’s a complex system represented with very basic materials.

This is design thinking in action: human-centred, problem solving activities that ground design thinking in practice. It helps students to understand and innovatively solve challenges.

Design thinking can be used very successfully as an academic programme that goes beyond traditional university practices. It allows universities to prepare a more resilient, adaptive student cohort. These graduates are more competent to enter economies that are constantly changing. This is particularly important when higher education institutions are training students for jobs that might not yet exist or that might have changed or become redundant by the time they graduate.