The Rise of Project Work: How Schools Can Prepare Students for the Freelance Economy

According to a survey conducted by the Upwork Research Institute, 38% of the US workforce does freelance work. That means there are at least 64 million people who ‘do projects’ for a living. Contractors who are given a specific problem, stipulations and criteria for solving that problem, and a deadline to complete it by. 

And this number is growing. With the advent of artificial intelligence and remote workplaces, more and more people will be engaged in projects on a regular basis. Not to mention the millions of jobs— from engineers, to graphic designers, to construction managers, to research scientists— that are project-based as well.

So when we talk about helping students become 'future-ready' and prepared for life post-graduation, the ability to work on projects needs to be prioritized. Aka: Project-Based Learning is more relevant than ever. 

I'm not talking about model volcanoes.

Now, often in school when we think of projects, they're more like desserts rather than main course. Dessert projects are like desserts after a meal: they’re fun and nice to have, but they’re not essential. The main course provides the nutrients your body needs—your vitamins, proteins, and energy. Similarly, in school, the 'main course' is the learning process, where you gain the essential knowledge and skills. The project, like dessert, often comes afterward as a bonus.

For example, you might learn about volcanoes—studying their structure, eruptions, and impact on the environment. That’s the main course. Then, as a project, you might build a model volcano in a group. Sound familiar? Projects like these are fun and creative but can sometimes feel like an add-on rather than an integral part of learning. And when something in school is just an add-on, students usually work less and teachers avoid that type of activity. 

This is probably why one person usually does all of the work on a project while everyone else just rides on their coattail. The "A" students care enough about their grade to do the project while the rest of the group members realize they don't need to do that work in order to succeed in the learning unit. 

Preparing Students for Real Project Work

If we want to prepare students for real project work, they need to engage in projects that are main course. This means giving them a relevant, authentic problem at the beginning of a learning unit, and then subsequent teaching and learning is related to solving that problem. 

For instance, I once asked the dean of education at a local college to speak to my class. She told my students how most of the pre-service teachers in the program have not been exposed to teaching techniques beyond their own life experiences, and how this affects their work when they become teachers. 

She introduced a relevant problem to them. 

The dean then asked my students if they would be willing to design lesson plans for how they would want to be taught specific content standards. She gave them the standards to base their lessons on, showed them a typical lesson plan template, and told them they had 3 weeks before they would come to the college and present their work to the pre-service teachers.

The students had a clear objective and deadline. The only thing they were missing was the knowledge of how to design the lesson plans about the specified content. So that's what our class was about that month: mastering the content so that it could be crafted into lessons. It was a main course project; the problem was present the entire time. It was what drove engagement throughout the learning unit. Students had to pay attention when I lectured on the content if they were going to be able to incorporate it into their lessons. They had to ensure they verified the websites they used for research were valid. Students needed to rely on their peers' feedback to make sure their lessons were engaging enough. 

Authenticity Increases Student Engagement.

The authenticity increased student engagement. This is why there is loads of research that shows the effectiveness of project based learning for deeper learning and academic success. Students who may have not been eager to learn the content of this unit were now more eager to because of its relevance. However, students were also developing an aptitude for authentic work that will serve them in the project-based workplace they will be entering after school. 

School Needs More Relevance & Authenticity

So this is our call to action: make learning more authentic. We need to teach students how to collaborate, critically think, communicate, and learn information in order to solve real problems. This doesn't mean getting rid of best practices and ditching the way you've always taught your students. Instead, it means enhancing learning units with authentic problems. "Instead of writing short stories for the gradebook, you are writing them for the elderly at a local retirement home." "Rather than just learning about maps because they are in the 2nd grade content standards, you are learning about them so you can create your own to help new students find their way around school."

You're still teaching your short story or map unit the way you know best, only now there is a purposeful motivator. There's a problem to solve. There's a project. And students need to learn how to work on projects.