The rise of the robots is often presented as a terrifying prospect for young people, but if we get education right, the technological future could prove to be a land of opportunity. Technology and innovation; population and environmental change; urbanisation and globalisation; increasing inequality – all these are disrupting and influencing the demand for jobs and skills right now.
The government worries, correctly, about the pressure of these changes on skills while they also deal with the impact of the current educational crisis; the looming teacher shortage, the disagreement about the future qualifications pathways and systems of school governance and the effect this will have on schools, communities and the workforce. All of this means that New Zealand needs to re-evaluate the skills employers and individuals will need, and update the education systems to deliver them. A recently commissioned report from Nesta, Employment in 2030 (https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/the-future-of-skills-employment-in-2030) paints an extraordinary picture of the impact technology will have when today’s students are working in tomorrow’s economy. Cognitive skills, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration and teamwork are likely to be in higher demand while skills related to systems-oriented thinking (i.e. the ability to recognise, understand, and act on complex sets of information such as judgment, decision-making, systems analysis, and systems evaluation) will feature prominently.
Education, healthcare, and broader public sector occupations are likely to grow, as the dominant effect of technology is likely to be an improvement in performance, not a reduction in workforce. The Nesta report was less pessimistic than others about the negative impact of automation on future jobs, concluding that ‘far from being doomed by technology and other trends, many occupations have bright or open-ended employment prospects.”
The message is that the future is open-ended and flexible. So what are we going to do about it? Schools and tertiary institutions are central to the answer. But not with their current way of working: change is needed. What change? Perhaps the most important is offering more flexible and adaptive pathways for learners. We need to create environments that enable us to provide learners with a broad base of social and cognitive skills as well as academic knowledge. In addition, changes in society are driving up demand for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subject knowledge and skills at a time when we have an enormous shortage of STEM graduates. While the current focus on STEM is rightly associated with jobs in demand today, for success in the future, individuals will need to combine their STEM knowledge with problem-solving, collaboration and teamwork.
It is essential that we find new and interactive ways to engage students in STEM subjects. One way to address this challenge is to start STEM teaching in early years, which should help further erode perceptions that these subjects are difficult. The pace of change and technological advancement is accelerating, and our students will need to be prepared if they are to flourish. They will need a love of learning, as well as better careers information and guidance, but most of all they will need a mindset and a skillset to thrive in a brave new world. If we get education right, there should be nothing to fear.
