A Sixth Form Centre for the Future

Everyone still talks about 21st century learning and schools often ask candidates to present on this topic at interviews for leadership roles. This strikes me as a bit odd, given that we are already one-fifth of the way through the century. However, I think the sentiment which underlies this is sound. It is a recognition that education is about scanning the horizon and trying to work out what’s next, so that we can prepare young people for this.

In recent times this has led to an emphasis on preparing students to be lifelong learners, and employers and thinkers have started to create lists of the most relevant skills kids today will need to do those ‘jobs which don’t exist yet’. At the top of Google’s list (and by Google, I mean the company, not the search engine) is adaptability. A lot of schools are of course modelling this adaptability at the moment in having to adapt their delivery of teaching and learning in the face of school closures due to Covid-19. 

For me, part of developing this adaptability is also thinking about workspaces and how they have and will change. At Kolej Tuanku Ja’afar we are redesigning our Sixth Form Centre this summer and the brief given to the architects has been to recreate Google Headquarters. This is because we see Google as a company at the forefront of scanning the horizon and working out what’s coming next. As these concept images show, we have designed a centre which gives different options for workspace, which blurs the work and social spaces, and which offers flexibility of use.

Refurbishment work begins in May (Covid-19 permitting) and is due to be completed in time for the new academic year in August 2020. This is all part of our goal to empower our students to become the responsible global leaders of the future.