What is it like to be back at school in your Eighties?

by Victor Cherubim

Kindergarten in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) as a five year old was an experience I now treasure. My mother had prepared my tiffin box with sandwiches, neatly sliced edges of bread, stuffed with asparagus or thinly cut beetroot slices inside. She would always leave a small bottle of freshly squeezed orange juice as drink. I was dressed in school uniform, a white shirt and shorts. She would comb my hair, say a prayer and take me to lower kindergarten, mostly walking to a school a short distance away. I can remember, most often than not, I was crying my eyes out, before she would say bye for now, as she entrusted me to my Kindergarten Teacher, who patiently look minutes to comfort me before class.

Life going to College now at my age to brush up on my IT skills is a different matter. It

Is a free choice, free learning for adults, supported by the EU Education and Skills Funding, at my free time to improve my value skills not necessarily for employment but for the world of business?

I am now in the company of a different variety of students, of varied backgrounds, age groups, competences, colour and creeds, all wanting to learn a skill, or gain a career enhancing qualification. Luckily, it is only a small group of students signing up for my course, with only four turning up for the first day of school.

New City College is in my opinion an experiment. It is a newly merged group of three east London colleges, at three campuses, mainly for Black and Ethnic Minority students. It is the second largest college in London and the eighth largest in England with 20,000 students. Across each campus, they have partnered with prestigious Universities for further educational progression.

How do you increase your value?

At the Davos World Economic Forum 2019, we are told that 65% of primary school students will work in completely new types of jobs. Students need to develop transferable skills and ready for an increasingly flexible market place with the following skills set:

1. Data mining and interpersonal skills – extracting and interpreting complex data and crucially being able to explain it to others.

2. Interpersonal skills –teamwork, coaching others to perform better and being able to quickly understand clients’ needs.

3. Creativity – thinking of new ideas and taking new approaches to solving problems.

4. Online networking skills –having a solid presence on platforms liked LinkedIn, to help recruiters (and their software) find the necessary staff, in the work maze.

The world of work today is on the basis of value skills that differentiates employees from most computers; namely creativity, critical thinking and interpersonal skills. Besides, anyone with experience of project management (an approach which emphasises rapid experimentation) will be in demand and easily employable. Communication, collaboration and teamwork, leadership and problem solving skills are what is now wanted and desirable, but permanently difficult to find.

How does it feel to be back at School?

What is different now than when I was a young lad is that I have a lot more freedom, to do the things I want to do. In the past, I could not always do this. I now live the way I want to live. The key as you get older is to keep a positive frame of mind, fix the health problems that come along, perhaps, with age, but continue to be active, both physically and also with your mind. I have put comfort before style or looks. I place greater value on stimulating conversations and the people who have them. I have learned to regret only the things I didn’t do, not the ones I did do.

I now break bones more easily, heal more slowly, so move around more carefully. I find it not easy to meet new people, at least people that I want to know better. But going back to school is a deliberate choice on my part, to meet a different group of people, particularly black and ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, people who are much, much younger and who come from different backgrounds and culture.

What is different in College today?

My campus is a brand new development, with all the mod cons and technology. But after two days at class, I have so much to thank for my education, than what is available to youth today. I find many have to cope and contend in silence with class rooms not assigned in advance (particularly, for the IT class) both for sessions in the morning and afternoon. This is not due to incompetence as some would say, but due the variety, orientation, class set up and class size.

I was surprised that assigned rooms are moved at short notice. My classes in the morning and in the afternoon were moved from room to room, from one block to another, from one floor to a different floor, from one computer station to another, all in the name of “administrative efficiency”, with notices outside classrooms displaying 2018 Lecture Timetables. Perhaps, none have “seen it, said it, to sort it.”

Educational Blocks range from A-K round a square, in three floors in each block, in the precincts of the College with all facilities, including a Gym, a luxury outsourced cafe and eatery, with an unbelievable introductory welcome to new students at enrolment and with little follow up.

Class sizes vary and for a brand new College, with a brand new work ethic and a brand new system of confusion and disorientation, call it management, all in the name of “political correctness” rather than “institutional racism,” it is strangely creating disparity in life science.