When we welcomed our first masterclass host, we knew it was better way for students to learn but I couldn’t quite explain it. I referenced the fact these people knew how things worked in real life so they would focus and teach those methodologies and only touch on topics that had been relevant in their career.

After a few masterclasses, I started realizing how students gravitated to these seasoned professionals and how important and fascinating their stories were. Our guests would share during but also outside the masterclass, over lunch, dinner or drinks at the end. Their stories included achievements but also failures and included a lot of detail that you don’t just get when someone is teaching you. Telling how to do things.

To the students it was about understanding and relating to the context in which techniques and knowledge was applied out there. It was know-how. It was understanding the why things are done the way they are, rather than just replicating recipes. To me that’s true learning that will translate into professional confidence for juniors.