n San Francisco’s bustling Mission District, they can be seen delivering falafel. In hospitals, they can perform MRI analysis, and on Wall Street, suggest bets and predict economic policy. They can even backflip and stick the landing better than your average professional gymnast. Whether we like it or not, robots are infiltrating every field of the modern workforce, leaving education stakeholders scratching their heads about how to best prepare people for a rapidly changing employment landscape. One 2013 study estimated that 47% of current jobs will become automated within the next two decades. A 2017 report found that a third of American workers may have to pivot careers because of developments in AI over the next dozen years.
One thing states can do to prepare for what seems to be an uncontrollable onslaught of automation is reshape their education systems. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has presented a unique opportunity for policymakers and other education stakeholders to rethink every aspect of modern schooling. At the 2020 Global Talent Summit (GTS), a virtual forum where leaders from a variety of industries met to talk about the future of work and education, many asked how K-12 education could better prepare students for the workforce. Again and again, GTS speakers commented on how education should be re-geared to match an emphasis on skills in the workforce.
As many workplaces are changing rapidly with the advent of new technologies such as AI, employers are placing more emphasis on transferrable skills than on college degrees. As knowledge earned from college degrees becomes outdated, employees are looking for versatile “soft skills” such as leadership or creativity. The education sector, however, has not made similar changes, and thus hasn’t been able to effectively prepare students for the workforce. “When you have an entire K-16 that’s geared not to [skills] and suddenly you ask people to pivot…one way to do this equitably is really to redefine what we’re doing in [K-16] education,” said Sujata Bhatt, a senior fellow at Transcend Education and GTS 2020 speaker.
There are many ways schools can pivot their curriculum towards a job market that is increasingly focused on skills. Eschewing assignments based on memorization will help students prepare for a world where up to 50% of the facts that they memorize today will no longer be relevant tomorrow. Incorporating curriculum that expands beyond college prep can also prepare students for the modern workplace. In certain schools in Kuopio, Finland, a rich arts-based curriculum helps expose students not only to art institutions in their community, but also lessons on healthy relationships and environmental sustainability. And in the LRNG program, an online education platform operating in the U.S., badge accreditation helps students master specific soft skills, such as conflict resolution, and verifies the achievement with a digital badge.
Further, project-based learning is something schools can implement to match an emphasis on skills in the workplace without reworking their entire curriculum. By working on projects, students learn teamwork and time management—soft skills that will better prepare them for the projects they might tackle in the workplace. Additionally, projects can help students garner research skills and technical abilities, such as working with a specific type of software or coding.
As the education sector transforms over the course of this pandemic, it must pivot to accommodate the fast-paced changes of the modern workforce. Education can help students prepare for today’s workforce by foregoing memorization assignments, helping students acquire soft-skills, and teaching through project-based learning. Perhaps this oft recommended focus on skills in the classroom will help ensure that today’s students are not replaced by tomorrow’s robots in the workforce.
a global affairs media network
In an Age of Increasing Automation, Education Must Pivot Towards Skills
October 19, 2020
I
n San Francisco’s bustling Mission District, they can be seen delivering falafel. In hospitals, they can perform MRI analysis, and on Wall Street, suggest bets and predict economic policy. They can even backflip and stick the landing better than your average professional gymnast. Whether we like it or not, robots are infiltrating every field of the modern workforce, leaving education stakeholders scratching their heads about how to best prepare people for a rapidly changing employment landscape. One 2013 study estimated that 47% of current jobs will become automated within the next two decades. A 2017 report found that a third of American workers may have to pivot careers because of developments in AI over the next dozen years.
One thing states can do to prepare for what seems to be an uncontrollable onslaught of automation is reshape their education systems. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has presented a unique opportunity for policymakers and other education stakeholders to rethink every aspect of modern schooling. At the 2020 Global Talent Summit (GTS), a virtual forum where leaders from a variety of industries met to talk about the future of work and education, many asked how K-12 education could better prepare students for the workforce. Again and again, GTS speakers commented on how education should be re-geared to match an emphasis on skills in the workforce.
As many workplaces are changing rapidly with the advent of new technologies such as AI, employers are placing more emphasis on transferrable skills than on college degrees. As knowledge earned from college degrees becomes outdated, employees are looking for versatile “soft skills” such as leadership or creativity. The education sector, however, has not made similar changes, and thus hasn’t been able to effectively prepare students for the workforce. “When you have an entire K-16 that’s geared not to [skills] and suddenly you ask people to pivot…one way to do this equitably is really to redefine what we’re doing in [K-16] education,” said Sujata Bhatt, a senior fellow at Transcend Education and GTS 2020 speaker.
There are many ways schools can pivot their curriculum towards a job market that is increasingly focused on skills. Eschewing assignments based on memorization will help students prepare for a world where up to 50% of the facts that they memorize today will no longer be relevant tomorrow. Incorporating curriculum that expands beyond college prep can also prepare students for the modern workplace. In certain schools in Kuopio, Finland, a rich arts-based curriculum helps expose students not only to art institutions in their community, but also lessons on healthy relationships and environmental sustainability. And in the LRNG program, an online education platform operating in the U.S., badge accreditation helps students master specific soft skills, such as conflict resolution, and verifies the achievement with a digital badge.
Further, project-based learning is something schools can implement to match an emphasis on skills in the workplace without reworking their entire curriculum. By working on projects, students learn teamwork and time management—soft skills that will better prepare them for the projects they might tackle in the workplace. Additionally, projects can help students garner research skills and technical abilities, such as working with a specific type of software or coding.
As the education sector transforms over the course of this pandemic, it must pivot to accommodate the fast-paced changes of the modern workforce. Education can help students prepare for today’s workforce by foregoing memorization assignments, helping students acquire soft-skills, and teaching through project-based learning. Perhaps this oft recommended focus on skills in the classroom will help ensure that today’s students are not replaced by tomorrow’s robots in the workforce.
