21st Century Learning and Teaching

In Silicon Valley, technology entrepreneurs who fail often start over and create successful companies on the second or third try. Failure is seen as a...

The most important skills set for the 21st century is creative problem-solving and critical thinking. Our world is changing fast and the traditional career paths of the 20th Century no longer guarantee lifetime employment or security. Entrepreneurs develop resilience to adapt to changing conditions. And the development of the Internet offers a new generation of graduates the unparalleled possibility of founding a new company with a low capital investment – creating the fabric of tomorrow’s economy.

 That will only happen in Europe if our society embraces well-reasoned risk-taking, failure and entrepreneurship. To start down that path, we need to free a new generation of students from the notion that they should follow the dictates of their parents’ generation, for whom success meant working for a large company or in government. The company man and the bureaucrat are yesterday’s heros. Tomorrow’s are the inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs. It is those individuals who can carry the European economy out of its current crisis and into a brighter future.