John Dewey, one of the United States’ most prominent scholars in the first half of the 20th century, once said, “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”
The greatest gift of knowledge and education is that it empowers us to better our lives and respond efficiently to social and economic challenges.
The world around us is changing rapidly. Technology is achieving outcomes faster and cheaper than workforces with traditional skills. This raises the possibility that large numbers of people could become redundant, if we don’t act. The effects of globalization, changing social values and the expectations of millennial workers have also had a huge impact on the talent landscape, disrupting current business models and radically transforming how work is done. Earlier this year, participants in the Deloitte Deans Summit Lab on “Understanding the Indian higher education sector” felt that technology could render many current sources of employment obsolete, in three to five years.
So, is there a need to worry? Are our education systems geared towards teaching the current generation in our primary schools, so they are prepared for their transition to becoming productive and successful young adults by 2030? Truth be told, we need to be future ready. We need to prepare our children for jobs that have not yet been created, for technologies that have not yet been invented, to solve problems that haven’t yet surfaced. The values that are needed today are curiosity, imagination, resilience and patience.
Students need to respect and appreciate ideas, cope with failure and rejection, and move forward in the face of adversity. As parents, and educators, our duty is to motivate them beyond getting a good job and a great income. Our children need to equip themselves with skillsets that make them independent and capable, so they can shape their own lives and contribute to the lives of others.
Jobs of the future
In order to better anticipate the kind of skills needed in the future, it’s important to understand how human activities and jobs have evolved to their present state. Hybrid skillsets, which combine technical and analytical skills with soft human skills, and job profiles that create efficiencies by integrating smart machines and data analytics, are at the cutting edge of human commercial activities today.
For the workforce of the future, the focus should be on not just reskilling, but also multiskilling and lifelong learning. The workplace of the future will be a dynamic environment that will leverage the next generation of such hybrid skillsets.
In the Deloitte’s Deans Summit Survey, deans, students, and employees all expressed the need to develop multiple skills and be committed to lifelong learning, in order to stay relevant during this time of evolution in business and industry. I would like to add here that children going to school in 2019 should also clearly understand that they will be operating in a world where resources are not limitless and hence cannot be exploited indiscriminately.
Roots of responsibility
The students of today need to understand the importance of sustainability and become more responsible towards the environment. Here the UN 2030 Global Goals for Sustainable Development (SDGs) come into play. Students must be aware of these, to ensure the holistic sustainability of people, profit, planet and peace, through partnership.
It is true that scientific knowledge creates new opportunities and solutions that can enrich our lives, but it also disrupts established models, in every sector. Today, industrial automation, robotics and AI have changed the way many industries go about their work. For instance, we have recently seen how the digital drive in the UAE banks has impacted job profiles in which humans can be replaced by emerging technology
So, when education institutions develop courses and train impressionable minds, they need to keep in mind things such diverse streams of new technology as AI, autonomous transport, mobile internet, Cloud computing, quantum computing, Blockchain, Big Data, biotechnology and genomics. At the same time, the curiosity of students also need to be nurtured about rising geopolitical tensions in the world, the need for climate control, flexible work environments and the transition to a greener economy.
A recent report commissioned by the Foundation for Young Australians estimated that in future workplaces, 41 per cent more time will be spent on critical thinking, 77 per cent more time will be spent using science and mathematics skills, and management will go down by 26 per cent.
New skill sets
Education today needs to prepare students to become complex problem-solving and decision-making individuals. There should be a focus on judgement and negotiating skills, on analytical thinking, communication and people management. Students should look at technology as an enabler and educational institutions should incorporate technology into the curriculum, as a strategic differentiator.
The education sector in the UAE has implemented these changes in its current national curriculum, differentiating it from conventional educational practices, in the wider Arab world. The education sector is now a key driver in the country’s developmental goals. With Dubai hosting Expo 2020 next year, which will showcase the latest innovations in science and technology, it is clear that the UAE’s future prosperity will be on the basis of its future-ready professionals.
The leadership of the UAE has reiterated at numerous platforms that Emirati youth are no longer competing amongst themselves, but with the greatest minds around the world. Emirati youth are now being encouraged to pursue an education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills, which will prepare them for the employment opportunities of the future.
Challenges in developing communities
In India on the other hand, the challenge is to ensure that its future generations have mastered the art of working with data science and artificial intelligence. In a country where many places do not even have functional schools and where competency in foundation skills, such as literacy and numeracy are low, the access to technology is still seen as a privilege.
How can you talk about digital literacy in communities that are still struggling with basic needs, such as access to safe drinking water and ensuring the security of women and girls? So, for India, replacing textbooks with tablets is not the kind of transformation that will help. Rather, the very nature of content for learners must change. If we expect the next generation to adapt to the changes of the 21st century, our education system must prepare them accordingly.
We should stop telling our children to learn by rote and instead test ability and not memory. Educators in India should create an entrepreneurial mindset. We should also make technology socially acceptable and access to smart devices and the internet should not be subject to gender biases. And most important, Indian schools and colleges should inculcate lifelong learning. Teachers should encourage a love for learning from an early age so that millions of people would yearn to learn new skills every few years. This should be enough to keep up with the times and avoid displacement.
As motivational speaker and writer Denis Waitley had once said, the greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence to go forth discover, explore and conquer the world.
