Humankind stands on the brink of a 4th industrial revolution. The technology we use on a daily basis continues to grow more advanced by the day, and, as it does, it will begin to fundamentally change the way we work, live, relate, and communicate with each other. These changes will no doubt be for the better, however there is no way for us to predict how these advanced technologies will truly shape the way we work and live. This can, understandably, be cause for concern for many people, especially since this is the world that our children will find themselves working in one day. Despite not knowing the specifics of the workplace’s future, there is still much we can do to help the younger generations prepare to work in this new age of technology.
While current generations are better suited to the coming industrial revolution than previous generations, by virtue of exposure to more and modern technologies, they still lack the foundation which is critical modern skills. These essentials skills include workforce readiness, soft skills, technical skills, entrepreneurship, and lifelong learning. Workforce readiness is, now more than ever, crucial to a young person’s success; often we place far more merit in teaching mental skills over practical ones, leading to children’s inability to properly manage time, attendance, and presentation skills. Soft skills include things such as problem solving, communication, relationship building, and emotional intelligence, all of which will help with an ever-changing work landscape that needs to be adapted to on the fly. Thirdly, technical skills enable children to gain job-specific experience in a rapidly growing field. This can include coding, project management or scientific tasks. Entrepreneurship helps to teach children initiative, innovation, creativity, and resourcefulness, among other things, and will allow them to thrive in a business-oriented world. Lastly, and arguably most importantly, lifelong learning ensures that our children will never stop educating themselves and seeking to learn new things. Sadly, schools have become establishments of teaching, rather than learning, where students are handed regurgitated information rather than encouraged to seek and understand themselves.
Thus far, we have discussed how children are not taught crucial modern skills in schools. While this is true, there have been many debates regarding who should actually be teaching the youth these skills. Many believe that it is the responsibility of education institutes as most schools have been operating under an education model established 200 years ago, and now need to correct the course of education with a new updated model. It has also been noted that non-profit organisations should be responsible, being able to host workshops and leverage community influence, or that the government needs to be involved, providing clearly outlined career pathways and qualifications frameworks. All of this, however, is just a starting point. Transforming the entire youth work development cycle will be a complicated, yet promising, matter.
We, at this moment in time, have the power and opportunity to transform the work education sphere into one that encompasses critical thinking and positively impacts the future of work. The 4th industrial revolution is on our doorsteps, and we need to prepare our youth for an unknown future.