At Kloodle, we believe that everyone is a work in progress. Every day, we all adhere to the laws of evolution. We either grow and contribute, or we stagnate and die. Staying still means death. All organisms must contribute, even if they are consumed by others as food.
When I was at school, I enjoyed daydreaming about what Id be in the future. I hated limiting myself to one route. I explored all different avenues, declaring one week I was to be a lawyer, a heart surgeon, a businessman (whatever that meant), a writer. These occupations changed weekly.
I loved exploring the limits of my own potential. I read voraciously and enjoyed learning new skills. I hated the limitations of syllabus imposed at school. I wanted to follow my nose. I craved a faster pace and grew easily bored. I was inspired by all of these potential career paths and wanted to dive straight in. I wanted to learn the skills that made people successful on these paths.
I subscribed to the fact that good grades led to a great career. My inability to focus on one thing meant mediocre grades and a feeling that a good career had passed me by.
Education gives you the impression that there is a point you make it. When we gain good results and finish the course, we can stop growing and reap the rewards we deserve.
This is WRONG.
Our economy is developing faster than ever. The skills required by employers today will be obsolete in 5 years time. Employees need to be lifelong learners, adaptive and continuously looking for new ways to contribute.
Learning is a daily occurrence. It isnt an activity in remembering just enough to pass a GCSE, it is about developing skills that can be applied to a range of new situations. It is about taking yourself out of your comfort zone and growing. The type of growth required by evolution. Growth to become stronger and better able to contribute to society.
We created Kloodle to capture this type of growth and learning. Were the platform for people with a growth mindset. We want to change the focus in education from a preoccupation with results to an obsession with the learning process and skill development. This happens in lessons already. The shift is one of emphasis. A shift from is this on the exam to were building analytical skills, you can use this in any future career.
We started the journey three years ago at Holy Cross College in Bury. We trialled our software with two groups of students. We found 2 things: –
- Students are unable to relate the activities they do with the skills these demonstrate
- Teachers are really good in helping them overcome this
Our first lesson required students to think of activities they undertake and how these activities demonstrated key skills employers look for.
I dont do anything. Ive achieved nothing
But dont you referee girls football? Thats great leadership. You raised money for charity. That shows commercial awareness ..
We found teachers searching for reasons to praise their students, searching for aspects of a students character that they deemed exceptional. Students self esteem visibly rose in front of our very eyes. Education often cites deficiency; it rarely seeks out what a student can do in favour of what a student cant do.
This was different.
From our first sessions with Holy Cross, we signed up 20 colleges in our first year; a further 10 in our second year, and now we are on to 50 colleges signing up this September. Weve just nosed past 61,000 sign ups this week. Thatll increase by another 20,000 by the end of next month.
We discovered that Ofsted requires schools to engage with employers, record work experience, and develop crucial employability skills. We built our software to provide a world class tool to fulfil this requirement.
We built a scheme of work that enables schools and colleges to embed a culture of employability within their curriculum. This scheme of work helps students build their employability skills and record them in a way meaningful to employers.
Where are we going next? Just as results certificates demonstrate academic proficiency, we believe a Kloodle profile demonstrates skill proficiency. We believe every student in the country should leave with a profile that showcase their skills. Were working on signing up every school and college in the country in order to achieve this.
We believe employers should engage more with education to outline the skills they need in their work place. Were building badges driven by employers for students to earn that demonstrate the skills employers need.
Were working to make students understand that they DO possess skills employers value and that they can BUILD these skills every day.
Were working to #MakeBritainEmployable
