Question: How much do you think your secondary education has helped you in your current job?

Stacey Cutten answered on 12 Mar 2015:

Hi! Sorry I’ve taken a while to reply I’ve been bombarded with so many questions.

Throughout education, I was smart, but I had a very ‘too cool for school’ attitude. Despite this, when it came round to my exams I did actually knuckle down and this attitude continued during my A Levels where I worked as hard as I could.

I use a lot of simple things in my daily work that I learnt in school. One of them is learning when to be formal or informal when writing an email/letter, this is very important! Obviously maths helps a lot – but there is a lot of equipment these days to also make the job simpler. My knowledge of DT definitely helps on my current site as it is in the finishing stages, so I can apply what I already know about paints and finishes! To be honest, although you may not like all the subjects you do, it is important to understand them… It will give you good problem solving abilities in the future!

Apart from building academic knowledge, school also builds employability skills. It teaches you to know who your superiors are, and to treat them with respect (it’s probably not best to be calling your boss ‘mate’). You learn basic principles of the working world, about being on time and dressing smartly. Also, you learn how to prioritize tasks and how to work as a team and/or independently.

I know this is a lot of ‘blah blah blah’ that you hear every day from teachers. And yes, that top button being done up may not affect your education… but it does teach you the right attitudes to have when going to work!

So yeah, I feel that secondary school has helped me a lot in my job, after all… I wouldn’t be who I am today without it!

Sorry for the lecture!!! 😛