In the last year, the World Economic Forum has published numerous reports forecasting the Fourth Industrial Revolution and what the unprecedented interconnectivity of the technological revolution will yield as we approach 2020. We are, as they say, in unchartered waters — and the tools we use to navigate our course aren’t necessarily familiar, either.
Recent estimates suggest that 65 percent of children entering elementary school today will end up working in jobs that currently do not exist; and according to responses from chief human service leaders and strategy executives worldwide, 35 percent of the skills that are considered important in the current workforce will change in the next five years. In fact, when you compare the skills needed to thrive in 2015 against those needed in 2020, there are some key differences.
On the Rise: Creativity, Emotional Intelligence + Cognitive Flexibility
Two particularly notable changes to the list are the rise in creativity to the top three, and the addition of emotional intelligence and cognitive flexibility — the ability to adjust one’s thinking from old situations to new situations by overcoming habitual responses — to the list. As machines begin making more and more decisions for us, skills like quality control and negotiation become less critical — or even obsolete. Skills that that allow us to respond quickly and nimbly to the shifting landscape (such as creativity and cognitive flexibility) will be earmarks of success.
The question remains, how to prepare students for that which we don’t yet know.
Once the Internet of Things is built out, IBM scientists expect knowledge to double every 12 hours. (Currently, human knowledge doubles every 13 months.)
Get Comfortable with Ambiguity
These days, almost anyone can look up just about anything they want to know on a smartphone. Knowledge has become a commodity, and human knowledge is currently doubling every 13 months. If that seems like rapid growth to you, imagine this: IBM scientists expect that, once built out, the Internet of Things will lead to the doubling of knowledge every 12 hours. That means exponential growth of human knowledge at a rate faster than we can consume it — and with it, a radical rethinking of how we educate young people and adults alike.
The bottom line? We will need to become more comfortable living with ambiguity. Just as businesses will be less able to predict the future (and therefore less able to plan), so too will schools lack a stable compass by which to guide students. Here are some ways in which families and educators can help prepare their students to navigate the rapidly shifting landscape ahead of them: