What else did you learn at university?

 Jo Jordan’s  from Flowing Motion ‘s comment on a previous post inspired me to explore this topic some more. Then I was writing on the theme of giving yourself credit for what you have learned .

Jo has spent time working in the education sector and is ideally placed to comment further – and I am grateful to her for her insights. I will work through them one by one

1 Not everyone needs or wants and A and moreover the universities won’t allocate A’s to more than a handful of people.

I have seen so many students stress about getting a First/A for their degree. For some jobs this might be the clincher but you know what – after a while ( maybe even for your first job) the fact you have a degree at all will suffice for many employers. I tested this with some  – very successful – business friends and not one of them had been asked for the grade of their degree. I was asked to provide the originals of my degrees for the most recent ( temporary) job but that appears to be unusual too. ( for the record I refused to send them  – it is so difficult to replace the originals. Copies were willingly accepted – so why all the fuss!?) Now this might change or be changing as so many good candidates out of work are chasing jobs but I am not so sure.

2 Some students passively accept the university’s goal system when they should be setting goals for themselves.

Over the years I have mentored groups of  Human Resource Management students and I am currently working with General Management Students. In each case I continually ask them what they want out of their studies. When I decided to go back to formal studying in my mid 30s it was simply to prove to myself that “I was clever” and on a par with my peers. I was honest about that – I felt a piece of paper would somehow validate it. That was my goal – and I achieved it !  Joking aside though as with many challenges I believe that if you know why you are doing it and what you are aiming for your level of motivation will benefit.

3 Generally students find it hard to let go of the “parents/teachers know it all”. If students have experimented with setting their own goals and standards by the end of third year, then they have won. And the university and employers (and future partners) know that.

Says it all really

4 Did they have fun?

Jo suggests that some students would complain about the amount of work they put in but still got disappointing marks so whe suggested that they study less and party more!  Because learning should be fun – and when the fun goes out of it it just becomes a slog.  And the best learning often comes as a by product from something unstructured that is going on in tour life.

I like the final statement Jo makes because it reflects truly what I feel about supporting students – in school, further and higher education

“[students] need to  learn to trust the full set of their needs and priorities and the best way to learn is experientially. But it does help to have someone watch their back while they do. They are lucky to have you there to coach them.”

Thanks, Jo.