Creative thinking: The new secret to success with vocational training

Vocational education programs have made a real difference in the lives of countless young people nationwide; they build self-confidence and leadership skills by allowing students to utilize their unique gifts and talents.— Conrad Burns

During my research at going to STEM centers across the United States; seeking best practices and learning about knowledge creation and distillation, dissemination of the ideas and end user adoption, implementation of the ideas. One of the key take-aways I took away was how important vocational training would be for the future success of our students. Acquiring experience in the vocational trades could lead to future success. Technical careers along with healthcare will account for majority of the jobs across the globe.

There is a growing demand for students who don’t plan to go to college, there are some students who are interested in vocational training due to their curiosity in designing, problem-solving and producing. Some folks think that vocational training is not about creativity, they do promote creative thinking actually because technical education equips students with myriads of skills.

Enabling students have the freedom to harness their creative abilities through technical projects, they develop highly desired 21^st-century skills—including competence and ingenuity, and collaboration.

The various benefits for students that I observed were-

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1)    They learn that there is more than one way to get the job done

2)    They learn to research and work towards the ultimate goal of pleasing the end user- they use creativity, research to find resourceful ways to meet the end users’ needs. I saw students at various STEM centers display this through their work. Taking ordinarydesigns and customizing them in a way that benefits their endusers—making their skillset more marketable, and ultimately, more lucrative. The way the design thinking process works is that the end user in mind must be put in mind first and involves the participation of both the designers (students) and customer. This collaboration and gathering of information are highly coveted qualities that are necessary in the workplace. These are highly valuable creative lessons that allows students to think about the end user impact of their work.

3)    Students interpret mistakes as crucial to the creative process -: Inspire students to make mistakes so they can learn to work through hardship as well. Students must learn to overcome challenges by designing creative processes and troubleshoot problems more effectively, realize that there are multiple solutions to the same problem.

4)    Students use their imagination to lay the groundwork for long-term goals-: When students are performing plumbing, carpentry, electrical work, and masonry including their own distinctive style to the trade can help differentiate their abilities and prepare them for ground-breaking success. Eventually if our students after taking vocational classes decide that they want to start their own business or promote their matchless style of work in the future.

Our goals are to build enthusiastic, inventive and resourceful thinkers. We want to confidently impact humanity as a whole.

Adetola Salau; Global Educator / International Speaker / Author/ Social Entrepreneur/ Innovative Thinker/Future Readiness Advocate/ STEM Certified Trainer

She is an Advocate of STEM Education and is Passionate about Education reform. She is an innovative thinker and strives for our society & continent as a whole to reclaim it’s greatness.

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