There is no need to make the argument to me that I and my fellow students will need to be capable of working in teams in "the real world" because I have been living in it for many years now. I have had many different jobs in the last 10-12 years and all of them have a variable amount of team work required. I have been successful in every job that I have had and have never left a job because I could not work cooperatively and productively in a team.
This being said, there is a tremendous difference between team work in a job place and team work in academia. In a work place when a team member fails to preform that person is removed from the team and often from their position within the organization. The simulations presented in academia do not offer this level of motivation and therefore fail to meet their intended goals. The goals of the simulations are to teach students to compromise, to be flexible, considerate, manage time and learn to fulfill commitments. Instead team projects teach students that they can not rely on their peers, they must be prepared to produce the results of the team themselves and accept the fact that the team will all take credit for the product of the individual. In the end the quality of product represented by the team is of a poorer grade than what would have been produced by the individual had that individual started off the project knowing that they would be solely responsible for the project.
Academia needs to reformulate the way in which it attempts to simulate the expectations of the professional world.