It has been quite some time now, that employers have begun valuing skills over degrees. For instance, browsing through the job postings of Google, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon, you’ll see a plethora of roles that state ‘experience in …’ as one of the prerequisites for qualification. Sure enough, a bachelor’s degree, or even higher, is good to have. But degree alone is no longer a determining factor of success in today’s changing commercial landscape.
The 4th Industrial Revolution, as they call it, is changing how employers perceive talent. And who’s to blame? Technology. It is changing how the world moves, and 42% of skills that are deemed necessary today, could become obsolete in the future as a result of tech-driven solutions and innovations.
So, where do these developments leave the aspiring talents? In real-life experience. In skills in project-based learning (PBL) and in perceverence.
Let’s find out how PBL is proving to be an important selection criterion by recruiters and how it can help students secure a job much faster.
How Project-Based Learning will help you Get a Job Faster?
The pedagogy behind PBL involves education that emulates real world problems inside a classroom setting and gives students the liberty to find a feasible solution in a collaborative manner.
Here are some important hallmarks of PBL that can make students job ready and land them a job faster:
PBL prepares students for upcoming challenges
The traditional methods of academia entail rote learning and memorising concepts, which may not prepare students to tackle the complex, real-time issues that come up during live job situations.
On the contrary, project-based learning titillates a person’s creative thinking skills by probing them to look at the intricately designed problems and arrive at a solution by following a structured approach.
There is no ‘right’ answer or a defined solution. Instead, there are a series of steps that one needs to undertake by indulging in an in-depth analysis of the project related issues.
Such a perception of learning uncovers new dimensions and approaches to the same problem, thus deepening their learning of applied content beyond facts or memorisation.
PBL helps improve the students’ interpersonal skills
An important form of communication, interpersonal skills, is defined by a person’s ability to communicate ideas and emotions verbally and nonverbally with another person.
A solid criterion for getting hired, recruiters and companies are constantly on the lookout for employees with strong interpersonal skills who can communicate and collaborate in a better manner.
Project-based learning presents much more complex problems than showcased in a typical classroom, which requires students to structure their efforts in organising relevant surveys required for the projects, analyse the survey results and prepare proper reports that elicit the desired results.
This method of learning helps students to improve their communication skills in the process of collaborating with various stakeholders.
PBL helps empower students to solve problems radically
Students have to work independently on authentic problems that help boost their confidence as they implement the crucial tenet of ‘learning by doing’.
Apart from learning to manage obstacles effectively, they realise the power of taking failures positively and are not afraid of starting all over again, if they fail.
They learn significant qualities like perseverance, confidence, taking ownership of their work outcomes and even the value of celebrating their progress and achievement when it is called for.
All of these qualities are important traits of a professional who is keen to propel his career in a positive direction. Hiring managers are well aware of this and therefore, the students engaged in a project-based learning way of pedagogy have better chances of getting placed in fruitful jobs, much faster than their non-PBL-ed peers.
PBL propels students to take initiatives
One other most sought-after quality of future hires that recruiters look for is the ability for individuals to be self-starters who can identify what needs to be done and then go do it.
Developing an entrepreneurial spirit wherein students initiate programmes and projects that add value is continuously being fostered by way of project based learning.
It propels students towards making important decisions, looking for possibilities and holding fruitful discussions with their peers in a team set-up.
In a real-world environment, this could mean launching a social media campaign, arranging an event end-to-end, creating a website of the brand and much more.
Project-based learning fosters students to instil an entrepreneurial mindset that becomes a much-needed part of their professional demeanour career-wise.
PBL builds adaptability among students
There is a tremendous shift in the way jobs are performed today. As mentioned before, per the continuously evolving technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, more than 1 billion people would require to be reskilled by the year 2030, according to the World Economic Forum!
The major economic and demographic shifts accentuate the need for adopting PBL for achieving goals sustainably at workplaces. Project-based learning acts like a constant reminder for students to step outside their comfort zone and rely on iterative learning as well as logical deduction to find practical solutions.
It makes them more adaptive of the ever-changing work landscape and make way for newer and better ways of doing the same things. The different techniques used in PBL are not just limited to working in projects, but very well extend to the job role that they intend to take up upon entering the workforce.
Project-Based Learning: The Present and Future
Project-based learning is here to stay for a long time to come, given the many ways in which it empowers students to develop knowledge based skills which can help them become job ready.
For instance, project-based learning has been connected to significant improvements in student test scores, attendance, and classroom engagement, according to research undertaken by The Autodesk Foundation.
And with the pandemic critically disrupting the traditional classroom pedagogy, it is only understadable that PBL will take over as a more credible, effective mode of learning, beneficial for both learners and employers.
PBL is indeed an excellent tool to equip the students of today to develop marketable skills and get noticed by their dream companies. CodeQuotient masters PBL when it comes to software development. Our SuperCoders programme has churned out seasoned software developers who’re now placed in competitive IT firms with handsome packages. If you’re an aspiring student looking forward to taking on coding skills via PBL, we’re here to help. For more info, check out our website here, or send us an email at info@codequotient.com
