As the world continues to evolve and technology continues to advance, what sort of skills should young people be learning in the classroom to be prepared for the jobs of the future?
Well, quite bluntly, we don’t know and instead of preparing our young people for specific jobs that may, or may not exist in the future, we should be equipping our young people with skills that will always be required for success, skills that are timeless and cannot easily be replicated by machines.
Remember. Any job or task that can be simplified down to a series of logical and sequential steps, will be automated and replaced by technology - much sooner than we all think!
So, what sort of skills should we be teaching or inspiring in our young people for success in the future?
Currently, school as we know it limits a students creative spark as it primarily focused on the students ability to memorise and regurgitate knowledge. In the words of Tony Wagner, Expert in Residence at Harvard University, “The world no longer cares about what you know. What the world cares about, is what you do with what you know.”
[My thoughts on the current education system: https://www.facebook.com/tajpabari/videos/1424491964230958]
New technologies will be able to get most technical jobs done far quicker than humans ever will, however, a machine is not as creative as a human and therefore we must encourage students to be creative.
Creativity is no longer a word exclusively for students going down a field in the arts, but it's a word and skill that is crucial for every student to learn and embrace!
A student who cannot effectively communicate his or her ideas will not be able to compete in the innovation economy. Communication is not something that can be taught from a textbook. It is a skill that must be taught through experimentation.
Starting from Primary School or Elementary School, we must teach students simple skills, such as how to speak in public, how to maintain eye contact, how to respond to questions and how to interact with different types of people. These skills can be taught in the form of a student only networking event or a ‘business camp’.
3. Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
A student who is not able to understand another human being will find it very difficult to succeed in the future. Many of the jobs of future will be based around collaboration and team work.
A student must be able to read other people's emotions and be able to effectively respond to them in a calm and relaxed manner.
Taj Pabari is the seventeen-year-old Founder of Fiftysix Creations. A social enterprise with a goal of educating one million kids by 2020.
Personal Website: www.tajpabari.com