Coding will not future-proof children in South Africa
WHAT skills will be required in the future?
The Young Presidents Organisation (YPO)Edge conference held in Cape Town yesterday looked into the future of work.
A leading thinker in the artificial intelligence space, Dr Vivien Ming, shared a unique view about preparing for the future.
Ming is a theoretical neuroscientist and technologist.
She co-founded Socos, where machine learning and cognitive neuroscience combine to maximise students’ life outcomes.
According to Ming, the world has got it all wrong about preparing for the future, especially around the dominant thinking about preparing young people.
The popular view right now is that young people should study coding, but Ming believes differently.
She said there was a time when it was necessary to study coding to get the best jobs.
“That time is slowly getting behind us now. The future of today’s youth will be different.
“In future, it will not be necessary for human beings to code. Those that code will be the equivalent of bricklayers today.
“In view of this future, it is unwise at this stage to encourage young people to consider coding as a career as by the time they will be ready to work, there will be limited work or not so meaningful work in the coding space,” she said.
Instead of focusing on coding, Ming suggests that there should be more focus on creativity within the education sector.
This is partly the case because creativity will allow young people to deal with any situation that arises.
Such a skill would allow them to create under any circumstances. The chances of them being irrelevant would also be less as they could be able to adapt, she said.
Ming highlighted the need for the education system to create a curriculum that would allow young people to learn about resilience, the ability to withstand challenges.
Resilience was key for the success of entrepreneurs who built the Silicon Valley.
The success of leading tech companies today had little to do with coding but more to do with creativity and the ability of its chief executives to be resilient.
“If South Africa is to withstand the changes that will come in the future, it will have to start now to get its young people to be explorers and people who are hopeful,” she said.
This message will be the hardest to swallow for many leaders in South Africa as many believe coding is the next big thing to learn.
President Cyril Ramaphosa was one of the key speakers at the YPO event.
This organisation is the premier leadership organisation for chief executives in the world.
The insights shared in this event fell on the ears of more 3 000 chief executives around the world.
As the president and the government are planning to introduce coding in schools, one hopes that he also gets the message from Ming on what should be done in preparing the youth for the future.
Coding yes, but creativity and resilience should be chief among the focus areas if South Africa is to create future explorers and founders of leading businesses.