Work ethic starts at home

Employers expect workers to get to work on time, to share a rapport with colleagues, to master time management and take responsibility on the job - all facets of having a work ethic. These attributes are not automatic. Young people have to learn them.

Work skills are acquired from the family environment, the quality and effectiveness of school teaching, and at the workplace, according to Graham Young, the president of the Secondary Principals Association of New Zealand.

"We sometimes undersell the importance of the family. It is where the young child gains their first learning experiences, where a sense of identity is developed, it is where long-term dreams and aspirations are formed and it is also where modelling of a work ethic first occurs for them," Young says.

School curriculums had changed dramatically in recent years to foster learning in different ways.

"Schools have redefined what we mean by knowledge today. The curriculum encompasses critical thinking, problem solving, communication, social skills, information management, research skills and relationship management," Young says.

The relationship management skills are not just about learning to play and work with other people.

"Skills around self-management, self-motivation and self-learning are all drivers of the school curriculum today."

It includes developing the ability to plan, setting goals, time management, developing strategies to overcome hurdles and changing course when necessary.

Subjects such as health and physical education, English and other major subject areas integrate self-management aspects in the teaching. There are also specific courses in schools such as a careers programme.

Some schools run programmes such as "a business school" or enterprise studies. Students get the opportunity to develop a product and market it and learn the skills to have a successful business and entrepreneurial flair is fostered.

The curriculum is also reinforced in the home and the workplace has a big responsibility as a place of learning, Young says.

"It is when you put the learning of self-management skills into place in a workplace that they get embedded."

After-school jobs teach young people wider skills than work ethic, such as balancing life and managing commitments, Young believes.

"The most significant aspect of after-school work in my opinion is that young people learn how to balance their priorities," he says.

Dr John Langley, Dean of Education at the University of Auckland, agrees.

Many 15, 16 and 17-year-olds now have to balance their school life with work and are doing that very successfully, he says.

Telling students what makes a good worker and what is a good work ethic is too simplistic.

"You don't teach work ethic by having a section in a book called it. Knowing about something and actually developing it are two different things," Langley says.

"I am inclined to think young people learn good work ethic because they have to apply themselves and get a bit of structure in their lives when they are at school."

Attending classes, adhering to timetables, learning how to relate to other people, to resolve difficulties and problems and doing homework in the evening are all part of the learning process.

Dealings with peers and adults is also an essential part of shaping young people's work ethic.

"Part and parcel of preparing anybody for a career is preparing them not only with the academic content and some of the professional and ethical issues around the job they are going into, but getting them knowing and conditioning them into the kind of demands and obligations it puts on them," Langley says.

This includes the time they spend there, the relationships they form and how they develop those, and the things they have to do in order to be effective in a job, whatever the job may be.

"We teach work ethic indirectly but in a strong fashion," he says of the teacher training system.

If a student teacher doesn't put assignments in on time or attend class, they are showing unsuitable traits and may not get to be a teacher.

"You can teach young people these things as part of a curriculum, but at the end of the day people learn them because of the way they run their lives."

Schools can teach the importance of being on time, being well prepared, the importance of establishing positive relationships with peers. But then if students are allowed to be late or bad behaviour is ignored, there are mixed messages, Langley says.

"My view is that the strongest motivation and learning dynamic that occurs is around the way in which schools value those things and encourage and reward them."