Future-proof your child
OUR CHILDREN’S WORKING LIVES WILL BE VERY DIFFERENT TO OURS, SO IT’S VITAL WE PREPARE THEM WELL, WRITES
Learn about the skills needed to teach our children to prepare them for jobs that haven’t been invented yet as change engulfs the workforce.
IF you went back 30 years to explain what a YouTube influencer did for a living, you would be met with complete bafflement.
After all, in the early 1990s the internet had barely been invented and online shopping and social media were years away.
The point is the world just 10 or 20 years from now — when today’s kindergarten kids enter the workforce — will be a completely different place to today. So, how do we teach our children the skills they will need for jobs that haven’t even been invented yet?
It has been estimated up to 40 per cent of Australian jobs may not even exist in the next 10 to 15 years, or they will be highly automated and done by robots. Up to 60 per cent of Australian kids at school today are training for jobs that will simply not exist when they are ready to enter the workforce.
Small changes are already happening in schools across the country. For example, courses in coding and computer programming are already being introduced to many primary and high schools alongside traditional classes in maths, English, history and geography.
“We don’t know what kids will need to know when they enter the workforce of the fu- ture, so we need to teach them how to learn, we need to teach them transferable skills and blended skill sets,” says Jan Owen, chief executive at the Foundation For Young Australians.
“Our human skills are the things we need to teach because a robot will never have imagination, the core human capabilities can never be replaced.
“Employers already want increased digital skills, problem-solving, creative thinking and bilingual skills. And some schools are doing a valiant job in that regard, there are points of light here and there.”
As Owen says, preparing our kids for the future is not just about teaching them to code and program computers.
Many agree an ability to think creatively and to solve problems will set people apart from robots, and it’s a concept Inventium is introducing to schools nationally through their Hack In A Box program.
The six-week, in-classroom
program helps students learn creative problem-solving skills using real scenarios presented by major corporations. So far, companies such as Virgin Australia, Village Roadshow and The Reach Foundation have been involved.
“Village Roadshow presented students with the real-life challenge of how to make going to the movies more fun,” Inventium co-founder Amantha Imber says.
“So students had to find ways to solve this, then test it with real customers and pitch their findings back to the organisation.
“We also had Virgin Australia involved, who asked students: ‘How can we make flying fantastic fun for teens?’ And The Reach Foundation asked: ‘How can we use social media to build self-esteem rather than break it?’
“It’s important the challenges are something these kids can relate to and they’re loving it because it’s asking them to solve a real-life problem that matters in the areas they’re interested in.”
Imber says there has to be a change in the way we teach children and the willingness to adopt a program such as Hack In A Box, which has been trialled with almost 1000 students so far and aims to be in 200 classrooms by the end of the year, is encouraging.
“There needs to be a real shift on what we are teaching children,” Imber says.
“It is no longer relevant for kids to be learning formulas, robots can do this kind of stuff, we need to teach kids creative thinking, this is the key.
“We simply don’t know what most jobs will be in the future, but those most valuable and best-paying jobs will be the ones that require humans to solve problems rather than those that have the technology to automate.”
In a blog, social researcher Mark McCrindle asks the question: How well are our 19th-century institutions connecting with 21st-century students?
“School is no longer just a place to learn maths, science and writing,” McCrindle writes.
“It’s a place to learn interpersonal skills that will never become outdated, like how to collaborate, resolve conflict, clearly communicate ideas and teach others.”
Owen worries Australian schools are not doing enough to stay relevant for today’s students.
She says 70,000 Year 12 students, or 20 per cent, didn’t graduate in 2017 because they opted out for some reason.
“The reason is that school has so little meaning for these kids,” Owen says.
“And finishing Year 12 is more important than ever before, due to the need for emerging skills. But we need courageous leadership in our education system. Schools are almost going it alone, which is why we see points of light here and there, but we need to move forward together with a strategy and a plan.
“We need a redesign of the system.”
Opportunities to learn about the use and application of a range of digital technologies are already available in syllabuses from Kindergarten to Year 12 including coding, high technology, robotics and programming.
IT’S IMPORTANT THE CHALLENGES ARE SOMETHING THESE KIDS CAN RELATE TO AND THEY’RE LOVING IT BECAUSE IT’S ASKING THEM TO SOLVE A REAL-LIFE PROBLEM THAT MATTERS IN THE AREAS THEY’RE INTERESTED IN.” INVENTIUM CO-FOUNDER AMANTHA IMBER