Tactical Learning

Geoff Mulgan, the director of the Young Foundation, talks about the concept of studio schools in this speech. The foundation, which centers around education, modeled its studio school concept after the original studio schools of the renaissance. The foundation's overall aim is to create a place where you learn by working and work by learning.

Mulgan discusses the important need for innovation in education. With large numbers of bored teens, young adults are not getting jobs and employers feel that potential workers lack knowledge and workplace skills. With studio schools, the foundation aims to keep kids in school and not out of it. Work and learning are integrated, increasing non-cognitive skills, motivation and resilience. Schools are smaller with 300 to 400 pupils, with a curriculum that puts focus on tactical projects, business-like timetables and personal coaches who work alongside teachers.

These schools allow youth to enter the skilled trades and get jobs or to extend their path into university. Mulgan states that children learn by doing real things and working in teams which is the opposite of what is seen in mainstream schools. A test of the new educational system reveals higher test scores, more motivated students as well as higher levels of involvement.

Geoff Mulgan proves that studio schools put students at the heart of learning and not at its edges.