With the governments drive for standards being clouded by the insistence that the role of education is to prepare young people for the world of work schools are yet again thrown into the maelstrom of defining education for social or economic purposes.

Ironically, in the early part of this century at the heart of both arguments is now the quality of the learner and the learning experience.

While basic English and maths is becoming a given the content and regurgitation driven education so beloved of our processors is diminishing with the ‘social’ skills of problem solving, team work, responsibility for actions, adaptability and so on becoming a prominent clarion cry for reformers who believe education should provide labour market ready ‘product.’

The irony of this lies in the basic premise of educators, and good teachers are educators, that the basic skills for learners can be boiled down to three components:
· Language, in our case English, as well as a second or third language, enabling you to communicate your ideas and learning.
· Maths (or physics) to appreciate logic and reasoning, system and processes, not just number crunching
· Learning itself, the research, analysis, sharing, problem solving, modifying, stretching and accommodating etc….

Within the last premise other subjects can appear but not as content; facts, dates, deaths, names and finally regurgitation to accommodate some abstract measuring criteria.

The skills for the future lie within these three basic premises, not measuring the content of learning or what additional skills a young person should have.

In the 21st century we may have the opportunity, utilising the technology, brilliance of educators and the desire of young people to learn, to address the question of “what is education for?” in a far more democratic way than ever before.

Democratic, not because politicians say it is, but because learners have access to more information than ever before.

People travelling in ‘learning’ directions that institutions may not have thought of and need to accommodate, researching their own interests, problem solving, innovating and sharing beyond the confines of school and college walls.

They will develop learning and employment skills simultaneously hopefully within a system that accommodates this form of learning.

Then all we need to do is develop a process to measure them, or do we?