Overlooked Skill by Alexander

Overlooked Skill by Alexander - August 2015 Scholarship Essay

There was once a time when young people were told "go to college, when you're out you'll work for a corporation for 30 or 40 years, you'll get a gold watch and you'll retire." Job security was practically guaranteed. A college degree ensured success. The knowledge of the exact sciences and literature was enough to get into college. A college degree was like the golden ticket, That time has passed. A new culture has emerged in the modern economy. In today's highly competitive market a customer's satisfaction is the number one priority. But the exact sciences cannot teach you to make a sale. The ability to crunch numbers will not go far if one cannot coney the meaning behind them. A brilliant inventor will ultimately fail if he or she cannot express her ideas. No, in today's world the knowledge of the exact sciences is meaningless without the means to communicate them. Today the ability to communicate, people skills, are as important a factor for determining an individual's success. Every high school in the nation should therefore offer a class in human resources. Effective communication, like any other skill, can be taught and improved through practice. The ability to let your ideas be heard as well as the leadership qualities lying dormant in every student should be developed and nurtured. These skills are the only way to ensure that the US remains at the top of the global economy. Without them there will be no way to compete with the China's cheap labor, German engineering, or Japanese industrialized workforce.
A lot of people may argue saying that there is no way to test whether a student is improving. Unlike the exact sciences this class will not be able to provide rigorous exams or hours of homework. It's time to see the bigger picture. The purpose of this class isn't to help raise individual GPA or develop a national standard. The objective is to provide the future generations with the means to succeed in the modern world. Depriving us of these skills is setting us up for failure. The world today is like the desert where the sand shifts constantly beneath our feat. If we do not develop the courage to ask for help, the means to communicate, or the confidence to lead effectively we will become undone. Human resources is like the oasis in the middle of the desert. Without it success is impossible.