How often have you been talking to someone who just nods back, saying “Uh-huh, ok,” whereas to you it appears as if they may not have really understood your point?
When we work in a team it is crucial that everybody in the team operates with the same information and understands each other. Communicating clearly is something that sounds easy, but it can actually be tricky to put into practice. How can we make sure we communicate clearly? This gets even more important as the problems we solve grow in their complexity.
The solution is easy. Whenever someone is explaining a complex topic, we should stop them every time we don’t understand in order to double-check if our understanding is correct. This can be done simply by asking for further clarification or trying to summarize what was just said but in your own words. If you can’t do that, you can always ask for clarification.
Our Explorers are supported to practice the skill of asking clarifying questions on a daily basis during our Mini Project.
This can look as simple as “Can you please clarify your last point?”, or “I’m not sure I’m following now. Can you please explain that last point one more time?”. You can take it to the next level by summarizing main points in your own words, practicing real comprehension rather than recognition.
Asking questions like that will earn you your #AskClarifyingQuestions badge and will help your team progress faster.
We encourage you to practice this skill in your daily lives. Reach out if you have any questions and we will make sure to clarify them for you! If you need any clarification about your Explorer’s journey and growth, book a free session with me, Daria.
https://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Clarifying-Questions.png6001200Daria Phttps://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/nobel-explorers.pngDaria P2020-02-24 18:00:182020-03-25 20:47:27The Nobel Explorers Ask Clarifying Questions
Think back to a time when your colleague or classmate has done something you didn’t like. Did you struggle with how to handle it? Is there a way to tell them you disagree without hurting their feelings? The alternative is to say nothing, but potentially risking the future of the whole project.
Providing your teammates with actionable and constructive feedback is a skill we hold very high in our soft skills training for all Explorers. This means you learn how to provide feedback that is results-oriented and offers concrete suggestions on what can be done to improve the project.
Let’s illustrate this. Instead of saying “I don’t like the colors on our website,” – which can be perceived as judgmental and less useful for the feedback recipient – you could try saying “I think we have done a great job organizing parts of our website so far. One thing I would change is the color of the background. That yellow color makes it hard for me to look at the website for a long time. How about we change it to a darker shade of blue? It would be more comfortable to look at, and it matches our topic of ocean life better.”
Our Nobel Explorers have a chance to start practicing this skill as early as the mini project or intro class, and as they go on we dedicate more and more attention to this complex but important skill.
We believe that we all grow through real, constructive feedback, that comes from a good place. Our program is organized in a way that supports and promotes collaboration, so providing feedback is inevitable and valuable!
Asking and providing feedback is something you can practice as well! Leave a review on Facebook, Google and let us know what you enjoyed and what you like to see more of! Book a session with me, Daria, for personalized feedback on your Explorer’s improvement and growth journey!
Sparking our inherent creative potential is essential for solving complex work and life-related problems that we encounter on an everyday basis. Unfortunately, the older we get, the less inclined we are to employ our creativity.
The issue gets even more complicated when we want to engage a whole team in this creative process. How do we make sure we have everybody’s ideas down? How do we make sure that there is one result out of this process that everybody feels passionate about? But most importantly, how do we make it a team process? How can we use everybody’s creativity to solve a complex issue and build strong relationships within a team instead of having everybody push for their version of the solution? (Does this sound familiar?)
We address this and more with our Nobel Explorers as part of our soft skills training in order to make sure they’re equipped to put their creativity into good practice and use it to answer complex questions.
Creativity a skill utilized in one of the Explorers’ very first tasks – deciding the topic of their website – which requires brainstorming as a team. To earn this badge, Explorers must engage in a brainstorming activity, make sure to add as many ideas as they can, build off of each other’s ideas whilst being respectful of the ideas of others.
Solving any complex question becomes easier and more fun when we become more comfortable utilizing creativity and learning how to leverage it within a team. That’s why our Explorers learn about and earn this badge in the early part of the program.
Hello, Nobel Explorers! We’re so excited to have you with us starting your journey as a Nobel Explorer!
Aside from tackling some of the most interesting STEM challenges, our intro class will encourage you to learn fundamental teamwork and leadership skills. We defined 7 of these essential skills into specific badges you can earn in the beginning stages of your Explorer journey!
Student uses verbal and nonverbal cues to express active listening.
Showing that you’re not only paying attention to what’s being said but that you’re an active part of the conversation is a skill that is a vital aspect of teamwork. It conveys interest in what’s being said and helps you stay involved throughout the discussion.
Classy Clarifier
Student lets teammates know if he/she understands them or not.
When someone is addressing you directly, it’s important to convey whether or not you’re able to follow their train of thought. If you are, then you’ll be encouraging them, but if you’re not, then they’ll need to know in order to adapt their presentation accordingly. In good teamwork, misunderstandings are dealt with immediately so that everyone can keep up.
Super Summarizer
Student writes down all of the important agreements, ideas, and conclusions in the public chat.
Group meetings are very dynamic and the topics can sometimes change seamlessly as well as at a very rapid pace. By providing everyone with a written record of all the most important moments of the meeting, you’ll allow your fellow explorers to keep track of what’s been said and move the conversation along accordingly. These notes should be taken live and written inside the public chat for everyone to see.
Constructive Colonel
Student helps others learn and grow by providing them with constructive feedback.
This just means that giving and receiving feedback require a certain level of skill! Sharing direct information in a kind, yet encouraging manner is something that needs to be mastered but it’s also the most valuable asset in a teamworker’s toolkit.
Buddy Brainiac
Student applies brainstorming to generate ideas.
Brainstorming is a useful tool to have at your disposal when a challenge requires a particularly creative resolution. The greater the number of different ideas, the wider the choice for reaching a better solution..
“To Do” Trooper
Student identifies tasks and structures them into a to-do list.
Breaking down complex assignments into simple tasks and organizing them on a to-do list allows the team to take on even the most difficult challenges efficiently. It’s the first step to moving mountains, together!
Captain Convergent
Student organizes and structures brainstorming ideas by highlighting the most important ones and grouping together those that are similar.
The true power of brainstorming lies in diversity. But in order to make the most out of these ideas, you need to turn that bundle into a register. Sorting the fruits of your collective expression by importance and clustering together those that are similar provides everyone with a clear overview and makes each session all the more valuable.
Hey there!
You made it all the way to through! We don’t have a badge for this though, but a heartful “Great Job” should work just fine! Now that you’re all caught up with how the badge system works, it’s time to go out there and get as many as you can!
Book a call with Daria, Lead Facilitator, for a deeper understanding of the soft skills badges.
https://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Teenagers-in-the-classroom-1.jpg8001200Predrag Mhttps://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/nobel-explorers.pngPredrag M2020-02-07 07:05:342020-02-18 20:36:40Nobel Explorer Badges for Intro Projects
Why should you choose a Nobel Explorers’ internship? No one could answer this question better than our interns themselves. That’s why we interviewed Michael, one of our interns, and here’s why he’d recommend this internship to his friends.
Flexibility and comfort
When you think about online internship, the most obvious first benefit is that you can work from the comfort of your home. This lets you save money for gas and any time that you’d spend on travelling. Also, you have complete control over your working environment.
Plus, with Nobel Explorers, there’s a flexible schedule, so you can organize your time and work however you want to. A flexible schedule means that you don’t miss out on anything important to you, whether it’s someone’s birthday or a basketball game you’re planning to watch.
Developing new skills
The goal of a Nobel Explorers’ internship is to teach interns the skills that lay the foundation for their careers.
On one side, they learn hard skills – STEM knowledge. These include web design, web coding, etc. On the other, they gain soft skills – skills that are highly sought-after by employers but are not job-specific. Some of these are teamwork, time management, problem-solving, and communication. Hard and soft skills go hand in hand and make NE interns future-ready!
Learning hard skills
You wonder why learning hard skills is emphasized? Friends of our interns didn’t have internships where they learned actual skills. They were doing a lot of manual work. As Michael said, the job of one of his friends was only to turn the computers on and off all day. Sounds really boring, right? And we’re pretty sure his friend didn’t learn much.
Our internships are designed for our interns to work by themselves – with the help of our hard-skills experts, of course. This way, Michael had a chance to be programming by himself although he’d never had training on javascript, node js, or any other programming language he was using. And today, Michael finds coding fun!
It’s like a puzzle, try to figure out the most efficient way to build something using the least amount of code.”
Website our interns made
The hard skills Nobel Interns Generation I learned during their online internship are website design and website coding. As time moved on, they became pretty comfortable, started to be more efficient, and ended up with an awesome website we couldn’t be more proud of!
Besides these hard skills, they learned a lot more! Michael didn’t expect this at all! He thought that he’d just be coding, but he also learned soft skills. The two he found the most valuable are communication and teamwork skills.
Communication skills
Miscommunication can lead to frustration, missing meetings, as well as a less productive team, so communicating effectively is a vital skill to master. NE interns become good listeners and accomplished at explaining and clarifying their thoughts and ideas. The end result is the team accomplishes more work together than if they’d all worked alone.
Real Teamwork
In school, students learn teamwork but is it really teamwork? Michael said that whenever he had a group project he kind of hated it because his grades depended on how his team members behaved. So we asked him how the teamwork at Nobel Explorers differs from the teamwork in school.
I’ve never thought about teamwork the way Nobel thinks about it. I’ve never thought it was a positive thing.”
During his internship, Michael learned the importance of being able to work with other people. He found that part of working together is not just working with the perfect partner but working with people who aren’t perfect and learning how to deal with them. It’s important to learn how to talk to your teammates to make you all feel more comfortable and, of course, get a good result at the end.
Are soft skills soft?
When Michael was introduced to the term soft skills, he felt that designation didn’t really do justice to the value of these skills. It implies they’re not as important as hard skills, and therefore get little respect.
Hard skills make you qualified for the job, but soft skills are what helps you write your resume, interview to get that job, and help you stand out.
We agreed that the term “soft skills” underplays their importance in the modern world. So we’re weighing in on the term – what do you think about teamwork skills? Maybe people skills? Or social skills?
Professional development
At Nobel Explorers, you have an opportunity to be part of a real software development team. Not many high-school students have this kind of experience. A lot of people have this chance only when they get their first job. Having this kind of experience can help you adjust to the work environment faster, get better insight into the workplace, and boost your confidence at work.
A real software development team is also an international team. Working within an international team means a lot when it comes to preparation for the future of work, as it seems more and more companies will be looking into remote work and international teams.
Skills transfer
Skills you learn at Nobel aren’t necessarily for work only– they can be very useful in your private life too. It’s about how you communicate with other people, and that’s definitely important in every relationship we have. You learn how to improve your work when things don’t go well. Also, you learn how to plan your time and how to effectively split tasks up, and that’s the best way to avoid procrastination.
Which of these skills do you think is the most important? Leave us a comment!
If you like what you’ve read, we only have one more thing to say to you: We can’t wait to meet you!
https://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/20190810_091924-scaled.jpg19202560Jelena N.https://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/nobel-explorers.pngJelena N.2019-11-17 15:48:392020-02-18 20:37:59Benefits of Nobel Explorers’ Online Internship
Attending a STEM camp can be a great way to introduce your child to some of the highest-rated professions in modern industry. Moreover, they offer a great opportunity for your child to make friends, have fun, and create amazing memories.
If you’re reading this then you’re probably aware of the importance of STEM education. And while STEM camps can be a step in the right direction for your child’s development, they still come with some downsides. They’re primarily organized in the summer or other times of the year when children are on a break from school. This is tricky because during vacations kids usually just want to forget about anything similar to a classroom.
Also, STEM camps can get very pricey since they include costs such as lodging and travel expenses.
One of the main reasons you should choose online over offline STEM camps is convenience. For starters, it’s cheaper and more cost-effective, one of the basic benefits of online learning in general. It also makes financial sense considering that you’re not paying for anything that isn’t directly related to learning and development.
Secondly, even though your child is getting out of their comfort zone, meeting new people and developing new skills, their home environment will provide them with additional support and ease them into the whole process. They can organize their workstation in a way that suits them best and
Finally, when a child attends an educational camp, parents are usually very much excluded from the whole experience. You’re frequently far away and your chances for catching up are fairly limited. With online STEM camps, you’re always close at hand and informed.
2. Collaborate in International Teams Led by Experts from All over the World
We’ve often mentioned the numerous benefits of international teams and they are all transferable to child development and learning. Collaborating with their peers from completely different cultural backgrounds is probably the best way of acquiring a global perspective. It’s also a setting for children to learn how to respect diversity and other multicultural values.
In an online setting, you’re not geography is not an obstacle. To that extent, another benefit is that your kids have access to experts located all over the world. When organizing a STEM camp, you’re able to choose from a much larger pool of qualified professionals.
This has been one of the strong points of our experience with Nobel Explorers. It’s not just about the fact that we get to work with top global talents who are great at teaching and have a distinguished understanding of their field. They also have relevant experience in working with international teams they can pass on to our Explorers, because that’s how Nobel operates!
3. Develop In an Environment That Closely Represents the Jobs of the Future
Working in an online environment occurs under a specific set of rules, quite different than you might encounter in an office where you’d work right alongside your teammates. The best way to prepare for a job of the future is to learn, practice, and develop in a context that’s similar to what a work environment will look like 20 or 30 years from now.
Project-based STEM learning allows your kids to acquire the essential skills for the future of work.And children are very much aware of this! This testimonial from one of our Explorers puts it best:
“This project brings people together to prepare them for the future. It helps you with social and communication skills, hard skills, and it offers you a view of how professional teams are working in companies or everywhere.” – Olga N.
4. Stay Connected to STEM Throughout the Year
Because online STEM camps are so flexible and easier to organize, they offer a better dynamic. Activities are spread out through longer periods of time, reducing the possibility that kids become saturated and bored. A system of weekly meetups helps kids maintain their motivation because it’s easier for them to build a sense of responsibility towards their group.
Since online STEM camps can be attended throughout the year, kids can stay engaged with the field longer. Subsequently, they get more opportunities to further specify their interests while the chances of them falling out of love with STEM are being reduced significantly.
Choosing the Right Online STEM Camp
Parents are becoming aware of the fact that there’s something wrong with STEM education in schools, which would explain the increase in the numbers of STEM camps in recent years. When trying to decide which way to go, it’s important to check for certain characteristics. Online STEM camps vary amongst themselves and some don’t offer all the benefits we’ve discussed. Not all of them are international and some even resemble a regular online course more than anything.
But the most valuable thing any STEM Camp can offer is project-based learning. This type of learning gives children the opportunity to overcome challenges through teamwork in a setting that prepares them for the future of work. We’ve recognized this at Nobel Explorers and that’s why we created an entire range of challenging STEM projects which are fun, engaging, modern and relevant.
You should always do some research and try to find answers to questions like what is their educational style, are the topics meaningfully related to STEM, and do their activities fit smoothly with your child’s schedule? Once you’ve understood all aspects of the service and they check all of the boxes, consult your child to see what project or camp would be the most fun for them.
Nobel Explorers is an online STEM camp where kids solve age-appropriate challenges in international teams by making products that have real-life value.
We have an entire range of engaging STEM projects for you to choose from!
Have you ever been negatively stereotyped for being a young woman in STEM? Unfortunately, you’re not the only one. The old stereotype of girls being bad at STEM is as alive as ever. A great way to put an end to this is to provide young women with role models who can motivate them to be persistent and succeed.
On this Business Women’s Day, we’re celebrating women in STEM who empower and motivate all girls and women who work (or dream about working) in STEM. We’re sharing the stories of five remarkable women who changed the world with their stories. We hope they’ll inspire you as they inspire us!
Rosalind Franklin
Image: Jenifer Glyn/Wikimedia Commons
Rosalind Franklin studied physics and chemistry and later earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry, which enabled her to travel and teach around the world. While working at King’s College, Cambridge, she spent hours studying DNA structure with X-ray diffraction. It was she who took a photo of DNA and proved it was a double helix.
Sadly, her achievement wasn’t acknowledged at that time. You wonder why? There is some controversy indicating that Francis Crick and James Watson used Franklin’s findings as theirs in their own publications. It was quite some time until she emerged from the shadow of these two powerful men and her contribution was fully recognized.
Radia Perlman
Image: Wikipedia
We couldn’t imagine the world today without the internet, right? Well, if it weren’t for Radia Perlman, we might not have had it. The Mother of the Internet, as she’s called, developed the algorithm behind the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), which is fundamental to the operation of network bridges. She also invented TRILL (TRansparent Interconnection of Lots of Links) to correct the limitations of STP.
A wildly creative thinker, Dr. Perlman even developed a child-friendly programming language. She authored a textbook on networking and network security and holds more than 100 issued patents.
Mae C. Jemison
Image: NASA
As a little girl, Mae Jemison loved science and stargazing and dreamed of going into space. That dream came true on September 12, 1992. She became the first African-American woman to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. There she conducted experiments on motion sickness, weightlessness, and bone cells.
As if that weren’t enough, Jemison is a dancer and holds nine honorary doctorates in science, engineering, letters, and the humanities. In 1993, she resigned from NASA and began her teaching career. Today, she is founder and president of two technology companies and focuses on improving healthcare in Africa and advancing technology in developing countries. Is there anything Mae can’t do? She’s truly inspiring!
Margaret Hamilton
Image: Draper Laboratory
Talking about space, we mustn’t forget Margaret Hamilton, whose software sent Apollo 11 to the moon. Also, when errors occurred, the software she created managed to save the lives of the Apollo 11 astronauts – Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Besides that, she was one of the first computer software programmers. She also coined the term software engineer.
Hamilton was a director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, and later became the founder and CEO of Hamilton Technologies, Inc. Hamilton was the recipient of various honors, including NASA’s Exceptional Space Act Award (2003). You’ve probably already seen the picture of her alongside Katie Bouman, when Katie took a picture of the black hole this year.
Cynthia Breazeal
Image: Jibo
After seeing “Star Wars” for the first time as a young girl, Cynthia Breazeal began to dream of building personal robots. Guess what? She did it! Breazeal is a pioneer in Social Robotics and Human Robot Interaction.
She’s developed some of the world’s most famous robotic creatures – ranging from small hexapod robots to embedding robotic technologies into familiar everyday artifacts, and creating highly expressive humanoid robots and robot characters. Jibo, Kismet, and Leonardo are only some of the famous social robots she’s made.
And, one more thing…
Finally, we have one piece of advice for you or every young woman with dreams and goals seemingly out of reach. Never underestimate yourself! Arianne Hunter, a woman in STEM, explained her early self-doubts:
If I would’ve told myself five years ago that I would have the number of publications, awards, and honors… I would have probably laughed hysterically. I would’ve thought it was impossible for a black female scientist to do those things.
And yet, today she holds a doctorate in Organic Chemistry/Molecular Pharmacology, is the founder of the nonprofit, “We Do Science, Too,” and has been recognized and awarded for her advocacy work for women and minorities in STEM.
https://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/I-feel-like....jpg27597244Jelena N.https://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/nobel-explorers.pngJelena N.2019-09-22 15:12:122019-09-23 18:39:17Women in STEM: Five Inspirational Stories
Today, if you ask any parent whether screen time is good for their kids, they’ll probably say it’s not. If you ask them if they nevertheless allow their kids to interact with screens, many of them will tell you they do. Although parents are aware that screen time can have a negative effect on their kids, they may not recognize that there are benefits to this interaction that shouldn’t be overlooked. So, how do we find the balance?
Fears parents have – and the good news
Screen time is passive.
Children, especially teenagers, could sit and scroll through social media for hours, right? When a child spends their screen time mindlessly, with no creativity or interaction required to progress, it’s referred to as passive screen time. Some other activities that are usually passive are watching YouTube videos, browsing the internet, and playing repetitive games.
However, screen time can be active, too! Many activities involve cognitive or physical engagement. For example, coding a website, designing digital space, and playing educational games are all considered active screen time.
Playing games affects education.
This is true if a child spends too much time playing video games or playing them instead of doing their homework or some other school-related activity. Also, many children play video games at night, resulting in sleep deprivation and inability to focus in class, among other problems.
On the other hand, many educational games can teach your child useful things. And here we don’t mean only learning math, physics, etc., or simply acquiring skills directly related to technology. Kids can learn teamwork skills, too! They can master skills like communication, collaboration, persistence, and how to be a good leader. But although educational games are beneficial, parents should be aware that they can be just as addictive. So, it’s important to limit time even for them.
Screens isolate children.
Do you have to ask your kid the same question three times before they answer it while they’re playing video games? You’re thinking That screen’s coming between me and my child! It can be, sure, but it also can be a source of new topics for you. Try talking with your child about some game they play. For example, what “the rules” are, what they’ve learned by playing it, with whom they play, etc. You could also ask your child to teach you how to play their favorite game, so you can play it together.
If you want to learn more about these fears and why they’re unjustified, watch TED Talk by Sara DeWitt
Why children should have (limited) screen time
Socialization.
In today’s world, it would be more harmful than beneficial to forbid your child screen time completely. Despite concerns that screens isolate children, it’s really hard for a kid to socialize if they don’t use screens. Children often talk about news they’ve read, podcasts they’ve watched, and about important things they’ve learned with their peers. So imagine your child standing around with friends and having no idea what other kids are talking about. They certainly wouldn’t feel comfortable.
Remember that many screen activities include social interaction. Think about playing video games with friends or chatting. And they may even make some new friends around the globe!
HELP YOUR CHILD CHOOSE A PROJECT TODAY AND MEET NEW FRIENDS AROUND THE GLOBE!
Screen time gives us the opportunity to learn a lot of useful information. It’s easier to find something we want to learn using our screens rather than books, for example, and it makes the whole process faster. And, of course, digital skills are a must today.
Plus, there are some skills that can’t be learned in school but are necessary in the 21st century. Whatever career your child will pursue, they’ll need teamwork skills to be successful. It’s important today (and for tomorrow!) to learn the art of problem-solving, asking for and giving feedback, and further developing creativity. And that’s exactly where screen time comes into the picture! The possibility of replacing what’s missing in schools we see as one of the greatest benefits of screen time.
Conclusion
Screens are a part of our lives so it becomes about teaching kids how to live with them in a healthy and ethical way. – Jordan Shapiro, a research psychologist and author of “The New Childhood”
Although there has been considerable research into the effects of screen time, most of the data are still limited. That’s one of the reasons why it’s hard to define what constitutes healthy screen use. We certainly believe that screen time can lead to many problems, such as addiction, anxiety or depression, obesity, poor grades, and social isolation. But it’s increasingly a necessity these days and it undoubtedly can provide many benefits. It’s all about balance, and the kind of content your kids are engaging with! So here are two more things that we’d like you to remember.
Screen time can be great but not too much of it. So don’t use screens as a default time-killer or background noise. Kids should spend time outside playing, as you already know. Many outdoor activities can be lots of fun and just waiting for you to discover them. Also, the time that the child spends with screens should be age-appropriate. The effects of three-hours-long screen time on a toddler and a teenager are pretty different, right? You can find many guidelines and apps to help you with this one, but we recommend you choose what works best for your family.
Not all screen time is created equal. Help your child choose how they spend time in front of screens. Look for activities that can help them grow, learn new things, acquire new skills. And making some new friends is a great bonus!
https://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/annie-spratt-U2uMgZAZAnw-unsplash.jpg28582972Jelena N.https://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/nobel-explorers.pngJelena N.2019-09-03 06:48:542019-09-03 12:15:05Screen Time for Kids - What Parents Fear
Having a need to ensure your child’s future is one of the most fundamental characteristics of a parent. We all want to raise them to become independent people, capable of providing for themselves. But the demands of the business world have changed drastically in the last 20 to 30 years and will continue to change in the foreseeable future.
Today’s kids will need to have new tools, methods, and skills to actually be able to sustain their future. There is a strong argument that having entrepreneurial skills will be an essential requirement for the professionals of tomorrow. Things like complex problem-solving, critical thinking and emotional intelligence will increase your child’s chances of stable employment and make their relationships, both professional AND personal, more satisfying.
The best way to learn how to think like an entrepreneur is to actually become one! Learn by doing as part of an international team and Start up your own Startup!
Top Six Entrepreneurial Skills You Should Encourage in Your Children
Your kids don’t have to be entrepreneurs but they should develop the ability to think like one. These are the top entrepreneurial skills that will help skyrocket your child’s career in the job market of the future.
1. Complex Problem-Solving
The ability to solve complex issues is a desirable skill to have in any profession. Even though the setting may vary, the underlying cognitive skill is universal.
If you look at some of the world’s most famous serial entrepreneurs, you will notice that they’ve often managed to top completely unrelated industries. Richard Branson has made a breakthrough with his record company but was able to excel with his air travel and telecom businesses as well.
People who are good at complex problem-solving can deal with issues they’ve never seen before and overcome them efficiently. The natural shift to agile and flexible approaches in modern companies has been made because the issues they’re dealing with are both complicated and new. Subsequently, complex problem-solving will only become a more valuable skill to have over time.
Entrepreneurial skills are best developed through learning by doing. Children can learn to overcome new challenges naturally, through play. All you have to do is provide a little structure to their games and guide them with open-ended questions.
In the clip below, you can find some strong arguments about the value of teaching kids through project-based learning.
2. Time Management
Time management is all about knowing how to plan, access, organize, and prioritize your daily activities. It’s a precondition for achieving higher productivity and plays an important role in reducing the anxieties of everyday responsibilities.
Being able to plan out a schedule and stick to it is something we consider an important aspect of being an adult. However, we stand to benefit from time management in all stages of our lives.
The daily schedules of our children resemble our own, in a way. They have routines, appointments, and even responsibilities. Unlike us, they’re not making their own schedule. It’s something that we, as parents, do in their stead. We’re helping them make their appointments and school project deadlines, but we’re also denying them the opportunity to learn how to organize their time for themselves.
When teaching them time management, it’s important to acknowledge this dynamic and slowly empower your kids to self-organize. You can start by letting them choose the order of their predetermined activities. Let them experiment and explore their preferences. Do they prefer to do their chores before or after play-time?
The sooner they grasp the benefits of time management the better off they’ll be in their careers. One of the main concerns of today’s workforce is poor work-life balance. People with a good grasp of work-life balance experience lower levels of stress, have a significantly lower risk of burnout and are more likely to develop nurturing family relationships.
3. Resilience
Resilience is a skill that reflects our ability to deal with and sustain ourselves in difficult situations. There’s really no other way of building it other than through experience. In life, everyone gets their share of adversity, some more than others.
Helping children develop resilience is probably one of the most difficult aspects of parenting because we have to act against our parental instincts. It’s only natural for us as parents to want to protect our children from everyone and everything. But life only gets tougher as we grow older. They need to experience hardships on a lower scale in order to learn how to handle the true challenges of adulthood.
Our day-to-day work lives come with a whole slew of adversities. Overbearing schedules, tight deadlines, late-night meetings, workplace conflicts… you name it! Empowering your children with the tools to persevere in difficult situations will allow them to make bolder career choices while preserving their mental health.
4. Critical Thinking
Teaching children what to think is easy. Teaching them how to think for themselves is where it gets tricky.
Critical thinking is the ability to analyze and evaluate facts in order to form a personal judgment. In our work life, critical thinking allows us to reexamine the status quo, identify new issues that need solving, or figure out ways to resolve the old ones more efficiently.
Children should be taught how to analyze and evaluate the world around them, how to spot discrepancies, and above all, question what is being said to them. That last part makes parenting all the more difficult because you’re going to have to use logic and reason rather than just rely on your authority. But your child will benefit because they’ll learn to value what’s being said instead of focusing on who said it.
For younger children, unstructured play is a great starting point. Try not to interfere as much and postpone your involvement. Give them a minute or two to try out different things. If you do decide to get involved, try to lead them towards a solution or show alternative ways for achieving a similar result.
As they get older you can progress to asking open-ended questions, encouraging them to think differently and lastly, exchange opinions while practicing to support your opinions with arguments.
5. Management and Teamwork Skills
Having a strong, solid, and integrated team has proven to be one of the most valuable assets and resources of today’s companies. Therefore, developing management and teamwork skills is crucial for securing a successful career in any field.
Children often stumble upon these skills just by going about their everyday activities. We’ve talked frequently about why sports are essential for child development and team sports have that added benefit of allowing kids to both develop leadership skills and learn how to coordinate with others.
It’s your role as a parent to guide and support their involvement in similar social activities. In the end, any group activity that requires some level of organization and team effort to achieve a goal will be beneficial. Encouraging your kids to try out new roles within a team will help them develop a vast array of skills.
6. Creativity
When we think about creativity, we usually focus on artistic pursuits. That viewpoint is somewhat limiting, because coming up with new ideas, applications, and solutions is an integral part of every aspect of life.
That is why some people differentiate between “big” and “small c” creativity. “Small c” creativity is the kind we use in everyday life whenever we’re faced with a new challenge, important to us personally, whether it’s work-related or not. Even though the solutions we come up with might not be groundbreaking discoveries, they’re nevertheless an expression of our creativity and the ability to think divergently.
There’s a childlike essence to being creative and studies show that children think more divergently than adults. It’s all about being able to loosen up the constraints of the well-established patterns, rules, and norms we’ve acquired through socialization. This allows us to combine concepts in new ways and approach challenges from a variety of angles.
All kids have the capacity to express creativity. Parents need to be careful not to stifle this capacity in an attempt to control socially undesirable behaviors. That doesn’t mean you should let your child draw on your kitchen walls with crayons. It just means you need to help them unleash their creativity in a setting where they’re free to experiment, while also not having to redecorate after their creative endeavors.
Additional Thoughts on Teaching Children Entrepreneurial Skills
The best way to acquire and develop an entrepreneurial mindset is through learning by doing. Since school is not always the most appropriate context, you’ll need to seek out a setting that will allow your child to practice and utilize these entrepreneurial skills.
Your role here, as a parent, should mostly be based on guidance and counseling. But one of the best things you can do for your child is to help them learn that it’s okay to fail. That doesn’t mean they have to like it. It’s perfectly normal to feel sad, frustrated, or even angry when faced with adversity and failure. They just need to have the right perspective. In its essence, failure is just negative feedback. Information that our behavior isn’t working and we need to adjust it to achieve better results. Failure is a component of learning and we need to teach our kids to treat it as such.
It’s important to recognize that most learning activities will help your kids develop several of these entrepreneurial skills at once. For example, if they’re engaging in a group STEM activity, they will learn how to problem-solve, express themselves creatively while trying to come up with different solutions, and learn to collaborate with others, all the while learning by doing.
“Kids need time for problem solving, critical thinking, applying knowledge through project-based instruction, working in teams, falling down and getting right back up to figure out what they didn’t understand and why.” – Randi Weingarten
https://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Entrepreneurial-skills-final.png8001200Predrag Mhttps://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/nobel-explorers.pngPredrag M2019-08-26 18:00:232019-08-24 07:19:22Entrepreneurial Skills That Will Secure Your Child’s Future
As parents, we want to provide our children with the best possible tools so they can lead a happy, independent, and successful life. The more tools they acquire, the more options they’ll have for choosing and excelling at a career they want to build for themselves. Academic success is important, unquestionably, and it’s still a significant advantage to this day. But in contrast to the world we were living in 30 years ago, it’s no longer a guarantee of anything. Some things are simply not taught at school, but can still be extremely valuable to your child’s success. Such is the case with entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills.
In the job market of the future, entrepreneurial thinking will be one of the essential characteristics sought by employers and valued in the business world. It’s based around a set of entrepreneurial skills that parents can encourage by applying different techniques in different stages of their child’s life. Yet there are certain behaviors and attitudes that parents adhere to which reflect negatively on their child’s chances to acquire and develop the entrepreneurial mindset. These are the absolute don’ts for developing your child’s entrepreneurial skills.
1. Emphasizing the Role and Not the Entrepreneurial Skills
In today’s business world, entrepreneurship is elevated to the level of an ideal, something everyone should strive towards. You get the impression that if you’re not a business owner, you haven’t reached the pinnacle of success. But leading an entrepreneurial life comes with certain downsides. The notion of how great it is to be your own boss has been mythologized to a certain extent and the real story is a lot more complex.
Entrepreneurship is one of those topics that’s riddled with survivorship bias, meaning that the spotlight is usually on the stories of people who’ve made it, leaving out the majority of those who were unsuccessful. Research shows that around 75% of venture-backed companies fail to provide their investors with a cash return, and 50% of startups don’t even make it past their 5th year. Bearing that in mind, it would be equally wrong to conclude that your chances of success are determined simply by the luck of the draw. Companies that have failed did so for a reason and the stats are supposed to underline just how difficult being an entrepreneur actually is.
While it’s probably true that entrepreneurship has its perks, this kind of dynamic, passion-driven lifestyle comes at a price. Entrepreneurs have among the most stressful jobs, which is understandable when you consider the amount of uncertainty that comes with the role. That is why they pay the psychological price. They often work longer hours, either at the expense of having a less developed personal life and getting less sleep. Those who are not prepared to cope with entrepreneurial stress are at risk of suffering from health-related issues, both physical and mental.
Whether or not someone is going to be a great entrepreneur will be determined by an array of factors. It’s evident that quality of life is not purely determined by being a business owner. We need to shift the ideal from being an entrepreneur towards having an entrepreneurial mindset and developing entrepreneurial skills. By doing so, we’re empowering kids to have careers they choose according to their interests, needs, and values.
Money is a very important tool in our lives but it’s still just a tool. A means to an end, important for fulfilling some of our basic needs like food, water, and shelter. It’s true that it can be of tremendous help when we’re trying to actualize our values. However, it shouldn’t really be one of the core values itself. Having lots of money doesn’t speak to your virtues by default. One of the reasons why it’s not healthy to lend it such significance is because any potential fluctuation in your accounts will be overwhelming.
How our children perceive money is an area in which parents can have a crucial influence. If you overemphasize its value, your child might develop an unnatural connection with it. They might learn to think it’s more important than friendship, community, family, or any other value that plays an important role in a person’s well-being. A study in 2015 has shown that valuing time over money “is related to greater subjective well-being”.
In conclusion, the money-first mindset is very toxic. It’s like a minefield for your mental health. Even if it may seem as though it can help entrepreneurs achieve economic success, it will surely leave a mark on other important aspects of life.
3. Focusing on the Issues (and Not Their Resolution)
There’s no doubt that being able to identify issues is a very useful skill. Entrepreneurial thinkers rely on this skill every day but that’s just the first part of the story. There’s much greater value if it’s combined with knowing how to tackle them. If you’re focused on simply pointing out hurdles, your child will learn to do just that. You also need to pair it with giving them a constructive approach for overcoming obstacles. Otherwise, their contributions in work-related settings will be extremely limited.
They might suffer from other consequences as well. Fixating on a particular issue is an incredibly frustrating experience. If that’s how your child learns to function, they’ll never get beyond feeling frustrated and outraged. They’ll miss out on opportunities to develop confidence by taking an active approach, and they could end up with anxiety as their sole response whenever they’re facing a challenge.
If you ever catch yourself purely venting about an issue to your child, try to take a step back and restructure your story towards exploring potential solutions. Modeling this type of behavior makes it easier for them to attain it and later on portray it in adult life situations.
For a parent, there’s nothing worse than seeing your child feel or get hurt. Failing is followed by hurting and when they fail, they experience a whole rainbow of negative emotions. All of a sudden, we feel this incredible urge to protect them. Still, dealing with negative emotions is a very important part of growing up. It’s the raw material upon which we build resilience, something that we’ll need to rely on later in life because it won’t just keep getting easier. Failing is an important component of growth and is also unavoidable in a work environment. Resilience will allow your child to push on when it’s difficult, while keeping their cool.
But that’s not the only downside of not letting your child fail. By not giving them an opportunity to learn how to deal with feeling sad, or disappointed, or angry, you’re also giving them a false sense of their abilities. You’re creating the illusion that your child is good at doing something when they’re objectively not. This makes dealing with harsh reality checks even more devastating.
This doesn’t mean you should always sit on the sidelines and let your child fend for themselves. If the consequences of their failure are truly endangering you should definitely step in and help. And when you do step in, don’t try to simply remove the obstacle but empower them to get over it.
Conclusion
In order to improve optimally, we need to consider both the dos as well as the don’ts for our situation. It’s probably easier to think about what you should be doing than to critically assess what you’re already doing wrong. That doesn’t make it any less important and in terms of parenting, it’s something our children will be thankful for.
The entrepreneurial lifestyle is a very layered topic. The advantages are very tempting, but they may come at a price, which is all the more reason to put the emphasis on the skills and not the profession. Entrepreneurial skills are and will continue to be highly rated in the future of work and we shouldn’t be a barrier hindering our child’s attempts to develop them. The best thing you can do for your child is to provide them with the tools and let them figure out the best way to utilize them.
https://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Four-mistakes.jpg8011200Predrag Mhttps://nobelexplorers.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/nobel-explorers.pngPredrag M2019-06-13 11:47:052019-06-13 11:47:05Four Mistakes to Avoid When Teaching Entrepreneurial Skills to Kids
Heads-up Honcho
Classy Clarifier
Super Summarizer
Constructive Colonel
Buddy Brainiac
“To Do” Trooper
Captain Convergent
