by The Future of Student Needs 2025+ work sponsored by Lumina Foundation brought up potential shifting purpose of higher education from a sharp focus on jobs to a more general preparation for life. Of course, in the short term, job preparation is the sensible course, and I have advised my children accordingly. But as we look over the second and into the third horizon, we see a very plausible future of a significantly reduced supply and need for jobs, primarily due to AI/automation. Or even in the present or first horizon, we will indeed see more AI and automation. The full-time lifetime jobs are moving toward extinction, as we move to more project-based work and “taskification.” In a this future with a high degree of job uncertainty, what kind of advice we can give to educators?
Let me introduce you to a wonderful framewor
k developed by Knowledge Works as part of their “Redefining Readiness” project. It provides advice on what’s needed to prepare students for this future. While our Student needs work identified the challenge of rethinking how we prepare students, Knowledge works has now given us a concrete and tangible framework to start building this preparation on.
I was particularly struck by the core social-emotional skills at the center of the model. In the Houston Foresight program, we have been emphasizing “practitioner development” as a key aspect of preparing for work as a futurist. So, it was pretty cool to see the Knowledge Works research come to a similar conclusion, and suggesting that we start this earlier (not waiting until graduate school). The hexagons in the diagram should also resonate with futurists — Thrive in ambiguity and uncertainty — yep, check! It was also striking to me, in spending a day exploring the implications of this work, how participants focused relatively little on “content knowledge.” Yet, filling our student’s heads with knowledge is still the modus operandi of many schools. In this future, it’s not that content goes away, but it’s how we deal with content that is the real challenge and value-add – how do we interpret it, communicate it, apply it, etc., and all within a context of human relationships (and don’t we need to get better at those!). Check this important “Redefining Readiness” work out! – Andy Hines
Love this – such concepts have been heavily rattling around in my mind for quite a while and this is quite an elegant representation and makes an easy meal to digest, for those who need to eat it.
Thanks for this. Would love to discuss. As I mentioned in a response to Wendy on Linkedin, this is definitely the tone already at UIA and GSU. It comes out all the time even amongst my PhD students. Much of the work I am doing right now and the system I developed as a basis for my PhD dissertation flows from that assumption, given that it is driven by my version of 21st C skills (beyond Seimens; Rotherham and Willingham).
Derek
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