Throughout history, stakeholder communities have asked what skills and competencies children need to fit into the larger society and how to best cultivate those skills; indeed, various societies have tailored education to the demands of each new age. More recently, the 20th century focused on universal schooling which prioritized core competencies such as reading, writing, and arithmetic. Our current technologically dependent world, global crises, and the changes in the world of work, require educators to prepare children for a world of rapid change in technology, increasing interconnectedness, and new forms employment. In today’s age of Google for example, no longer is the focus on mastering content knowledge via memorization sufficient, for children to thrive in today’s fast changing world, they are required to acquire a breadth of skills rooted in academic competencies such as literacy, numeracy, and science, but also including such things as teamwork, critical thinking, communication, persistence, and creativity.
Changes In Technology
Today, the digital revolution or the 4th Industrial Revolution is spreading all over the globe and has caused concern among technologists, economists and academics who worry about the implications of the rapid technological advances on members of vulnerable communities who lack access to digital resources—[computers, tablets, internet]. While technologies like artificial intelligence, exponential increases in computing power, and expanding mobile networks hold potential to make our lives easier and safer, they also threaten to leave those at the bottom even farther behind if not evenly distributed.
Changes In Work
The way we work is being redefined for future generations, jobs that require mostly routine tasks are decreasing, including routine cognitive skills like accounting as well as routine manual skills like those on an assembly line. This means that many of the jobs that arose in the 20th century have been increasingly automated since 1960. However, high-skill jobs requiring analytical and interpersonal skills, which are non-routine, are on the rise and taking a larger share of the labor market. There is essentially a growing mismatch between the skills demanded by the fast-changing jobs market and those possessed by unemployed workers. Businesses are struggling to recruit workers with the capabilities they need, and while many employers cite lack of technical skills, such as those from STEM fields or vocational skills, in a recent employer survey 17 percent of employers find “lack of workplace competencies” like communication and teamwork, a barrier to hiring talent.
Solving Complex Global Problems
As global communication networks make the world smaller, and the borders of communities and nations that historically contained our problems and solutions fade, we need to be thinking of new approaches to many of the world’s problems. Our young people need to not only be well-versed in their chosen discipline, but they should also be creative and collaborative thinkers who can find ways to cross borders and address global problems from climate change to health epidemics to the growing global refugee crisis.
Far too late, we are beginning to realize that many environmental problems do not have boundaries. The effects of climate change may be caused on one side of the globe and felt on the other. Small increases in the Earth’s temperature can have a massive impact on the environment by creating extreme weather patterns, altered ecosystems, and risks to human health, food supply, and safety. A warmer planet also impacts agricultural and worker productivity and is predicted to reduce global GDP more than 20 percent by 2100 if risks go unmitigated.
Summary
The rapid advances in technology, changing employment, and complex global problems threaten to leave many behind, destabilizing societies and leaving complex global problems unsolved. But equipping future generations with the right mix of skills can help us use these trends to shape thriving societies. Regarding our current and future world, young people will increasingly need to focus on making use of what they know and less on just mastering bodies of knowledge.
In the wake of these macro changes, scientists, educators, and policymakers have suggested an array of different skillsets that can prepare today’s children for tomorrow’s challenges. The new demands of our societies require cultivating the breadth of skills—a range of important skills that include the basics that many education systems currently focus on, such as literacy, numeracy, and content knowledge in academic subjects as well as information literacy, flexibility and problem solving.
The new digital economy requires individuals to be able to filter, analyze, and create meaning from the vast amounts of information available online. Skills like complex reasoning and creative thinking can empower individuals to take full advantage of opportunities in the digital world. Digital literacy is also essential. As societies continue to digitize, lacking digital skills will be like not knowing how to read and write. Parents, educators, and civil society organizations like STEMGuyana will need to work together to meet the complex educational needs of the 21st Century child. “It will indeed take a village”
