What skills do you think will a kid require to have a successful career throughout his life? Coding? graphic designing? digital marketing? copywriting? or none of the above??!
The job market has been changing at such a rapid pace that the present day employee is struggling to keep up with the everchanging requirements from them. By 2050 not just the idea of a ‘job for life’ but the idea of a ‘profession for life’ might seem old fashioned and we have absolutely no idea about how the job market will look like by then.
In the age of ‘digital information’ or as I like to call it, ‘too much information’, dealing with the bombardment of information to choose the right path is one of the biggest challenges that we face as humans in current times.
In the ocean of choices presented to us, what suites our skills, interests, and what might carry us through the entirety of our lives is a huge problem.
The rapid change in technology has taken a huge swing at the job market too. Humans lost most manual jobs to the machinery replacing them during the industrial revolution, these jobs were mostly labor intensive, which required heavy physical abilities to pull off, but these jobs were replaced by the service infrastructure required to run the machinery — however that is not the case in the current technological evolution happening in the world. What the industrial revolution did to the job markets of that era, the technological revolution is going to have a more drastic effect due to technology being able to replace the physical and cognitive abilities of human beings.
The recent developments in AI systems and robotics has shown a lot of promise in areas where it could replace human jobs with a much lower error rate. Right from automated delivery systems to self driving vehicles to automated surgery procedures. Some advanced versions of AI can even emulate human emotions which kind of sounds scary….
So the question that arises here is, what skills should we be focusing on to tackle the uncertain future?
And the answer lies not in a particular skill but the form. We should be preparing kids for the uncertainty that tomorrow brings rather than just focusing on one skill set. A child must be able to learn how to unlearn, re-learn and apply the new concept with ease.
The focus should be more on inculcating strong decision making skills, problem solving skills and critical thinking skills.
In addition to more emphasis on the 4cs —
- Critical thinking
- Communication skills
- Collaborating
- Creative thinking
Brining out curiosity in kids, making them more resilient, helping them become more adaptive to change- all of these factors play a huge role in the child’s ability to deal with the uncertainty that tomorrow brings. Kids need to have the ability to make sense of the information thrown at them, to be able to tell the difference between what is important and what is unimportant and above all to continuously learn and unlearn. One will basically require a lot of mental flexibility and great reserves of emotional balance to thrive in the ever evolving environment.
Check out Tomo Club —
Tomo Club is a cohort based online learning platform for kids aged between 9 and 14 years. We form a network of curious kids, who explore their interests through simulations, games and discussions which teaches decision making skills, mental models and life skills. Guided by facilitators, we provide kids a safe space to talk, collaborate, and foster creativity.
Sign up for the free weekend demo session — https://forms.gle/TPxZzEDCvXbT9n4X7
Blogs — www.tomoclub.org/blogs
