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Summary of the Need

The Growing Leaders Initiative is committed to breaking financial barriers to prepare all students to be college and career ready.

About

As the economy improves, the U.S. is seeing hundreds of thousands of jobs available for graduates to fill. Sadly, almost half of the employers in a recent survey said they failed to fill those vacancies due to lack of basic communication and leadership skills displayed in recent graduates. In other words, the jobs are ready but the graduates are not.

A study released in 2011 by The Institute for the Future identified key skills needed in the future workforce.

Those skills include:

  • Social intelligence: Ability to connect to others in a deep and direct way
  • Adaptive thinking: Ability to come up with solutions beyond that which is rote
  • Design mindset: Ability to develop tasks and work processes for desired outcomes
  • Sense-making: Ability to determine the deeper meaning and significance of a concept

In the 2013 State of the Industry: Technology in Georgia Report, 91.3% of the executives polled in the survey stated students were not prepared to enter the workforce after graduating from high school. When asked about career ready skills, these executives stated these students did not meet minimum requirements for critical thinking and problem solving.

Some of the primary recommendations from these studies are the need for educational institutions to place additional emphasis on developing skills such as critical thinking, the ability to collaborate, and to respond adaptively. They also stated that schools should include experiential learning that gives prominence to soft skills development. Unfortunately, high schools today often lack this type of curriculum and programming.

Habitudes: Images That Form Leadership Habits and Attitudes

Habitudes offers a cost-effective and easy-to-implement approach that helps students to learn vital life skills that are equally as important as academic achievement. Habitudes provides 21st century students the tools to develop character, leadership, and soft skills through the power of images, conversations and experiences to improve high school retention rates and address college and career readiness among students.

Learn More

The Growing Leaders Initiative exists to provide Habitudes programs to underfunded schools and organizations.

Will you help the next generation become college and career ready?

Have any questions? We want to hear from you.

Email Aaron James at aaron@growingleaders.com.