Empathize and define

REDESIGNING
THE SCHOOL-
TO-WORK
TRANSITION
1. EMPATHIZE AND DEFINE

PREPARE FOR THE EMPATHY WORK
GO OUT AND TALK TO
PEOPLE
PROCESS THE DATA GATHERED VIA
INTERVIEWS USING AND EMPATHY MAP
CRAFT A PROBLEM STATEMENT
I interviewed two professors. Why? They are in close contact with students, because both of them know what the world will demand
them tomorrow.
I did duly prepare both interviews: I thought of the best questions those that will be food for thought.
In fact, it was easy, I knew both of them. Their advices and points of view have always walked with me, showing how right they were:
not one advice out of all the good advices that they had spoken to me has failed.
Mainly, I prepared just a few questions, and hoped that the dialogue itself will create and indicate the best and most appropriate
questions according to the answers obtained. It worked.
I kept eye contact with my interviewees showing I was paying attention to their words. I just took a few notes. Moreover, I asked open-
ended non-leading questions. Thousands of “why” what leaded me to know specific situations that had forged their opinions. Every
pause was used by me to sum up his answer and keep on listening.
I was empathetic because I made and an appointment with them, I explained the reason why I wanted to talk with them, I tried to
understand their position and “walk in their shoes”.

GO OUT AND TALK TO
PEOPLE
45 minutes time spent as follows: 2/3 listening and 1/3 talking.
I chose two Professors: P1 Physics Professor and P2 English Literature Professor

GO OUT AND TALK TO
PEOPLE
Quotations:
1. Pedagogy must be based in multiple intelligences. If it is not, it is impossible to motivate students individually. (P2)
2. If students can’t speak English, they are absolutely illiterate for this world. (P2)
3. An incomplete or incorrect education can be a future cause of labour market exclusion. (P1+P2)
4. As a result, if you are excluded from the labour market, you suffer social exclusion. (P1+P2)
5. The educational system should be more flexible and adaptable to the constant social and labour conditions. (P1+P2)
6. Education should provide students with the appropriate skills that in the future their jobs will require of each one of them.
(P1+P2)
7. Education should provide communicational skills for students will have to lead projects and human teams in different
languages. (P2)
8. Tuition should be more demanding. Currently, universities create “encyclopedias with legs”, that is a mistake. (P2)
9. Tuition has to safeguard and promote human skills such as creativity and personal initiative. (P1)
10. Education should allow each student to strengthen more than weaken their own natural abilities. (P1+P2)
11. A bad education demoralizes students. (P1+P2)
12. At the present day, education can’t give an answer to the present labour challenge. (P1)
13. The right education is the passport for tomorrow. (P2)
14. Good education can create higher moral standards and better people. (P1)
15. A bad education can erase a whole generation. (P1)
16. Overcrowded classrooms prevent teacher from having a close contact with all the students, and as a result, teacher/educator
can’t detect real needs/motivations of each student, losing a chance of fostering students to be better. (P1)
SAY DO THINK FEEL

GO OUT AND TALK TO
PEOPLE
Behaviours:
A. self-confident,
B. approachable,
C. empathetic,
D. demanding,
E. tough but understanding (the kind of person that will push you beyond your limits, because knows you can do more than what
you think you’re able to),
F. patient,
G. sensitive,
H. hands-on,
I. pioneer,
J. altruistic,
K. unselfish,
L. with a defined personality,
M. intelligent,
N. Beauty (John Keats wrote a lot about that),
O. conversationalist.
SAY DO THINK FEEL

GO OUT AND TALK TO
PEOPLE
What I think and feel after hearing their words and having seen them working:
a. Both of them have a very high self-commitment with their own jobs and what they really mean: to prepare young people to
become industrious, trustful, well-trained adults for each and every one of the challenges we may face tomorrow.
b. Help students to become people with a solid head on their shoulders.
c. They want the best for their students, but they don’t force anybody. They show the scenery, not the spot you have to stare.
That is each student’s decision to what directly observe in this humongous world landscape.
d. Tuition and education are tools, huge survival handbags that help us to walk and get through life. They can’t be exclusive
resources. They must be the combustible that move the world. And the world does not only needs more engineers, doctors,
architects, but human people that work to improve life using cold information (I’ve got plenty of books with cold data, figures
and all that stuff) and the hottest of all the hottest information: the human touch. That is why it is so important to teach, instill
and infuse in the students lectures such as: work culture vs. path of least resistance and so on.
e. Both of them understand that they can only put in their two cents. They can’t change the whole system, but can be a starting
point, or even better, a turning point. And I know that there are thousands more like them.
SAY DO THINK FEEL

GO OUT AND TALK TO
PEOPLE
STAKEHOLDER
needs a way to
PROBLEM/NEED
because
INSIGHT
Self-confident, approachable,
empathetic, demanding, tough but
understanding, patient, sensitive,
hands-on, pioneer, altruistic,
unselfish, with a defined
personality, intelligent,
conversationalist.
better resources to teach
the educational system must
change radically
it is unable to respond fittingly
to present labour challenges
it has failed in his attempt to
teaching and training
To sum up:
Professors need the educational system to change radically because it has failed.
Professors need new teaching resources because the current ones are obsolete.

Empathize and define

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