School Curricula for the Future of Work
Aligning school curricula for the future of work is fast becoming a an important factor for the world.
“With technology advancing at an unparalleled speed and scale, the process by which educational institutions develop and adopt new curricula no longer moves fast enough to prepare young people for the future of work. The curriculum development and implementation processes often take years and may be decided without the input of local or regional employers. They’re so time-consuming that even cutting-edge skills and information can be outdated when the new curriculum is adopted. What’s more, some educational institutions still focus on rote memorization and test performance, instead of on experiential learning, soft-skills acquisition and changes in mindset.”
This piece published by World Economic Forum (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/01/how-to-bring-school-curricula-up-to-speed/) argues for school curricula to move away from long cycles of development.
A New Approach To Learning?
They argue for five changes which are necessary for the future world of work and by extension aides the school-to-work transition:
- Partner with employers to understand their skills gaps – not generically (like ‘maths’) but specific to the jobs at hand.
- Teach skills that change mindsets – move to helping youth learn how to learn – giving them the capabilities to continually acquire new knowledge and work with others.
- Experience-based learning rules – moving from students working alone at their desks, to collaborating with small teams on real-world issues.
- Revisit curricula refresh rates – ten to fifteen years is too long and in the context of uncertainty and change curricula review needs to be continuous. Adopt a lean/agile approach of constant improvement.
- Push the technology envelope – youth aren’t just consumers of tech, but they play a role in the way that technology develops.
“One generation ago, we used dial-up to connect to Netscape. Amazon was a small online bookstore. Facebook didn’t exist, and neither did Uber, WeChat, M-Pesa, Airbnb, or the iPhone. No one answered if you asked Alexa how to spell “achievement”, and cutting-edge technology in entertainment meant six-CD changers and expensive DVD players. Perhaps more importantly, cancer and AIDS had much higher rates of mortality, and predicting diseases with genetic testing was the subject of science fiction. So just imagine what technological and humanitarian advances today’s youth can deliver a generation from now if they’re trained not only to be consumers of technology, but also the creators, improvers, and extenders of it. To do so, educators need to adapt new curricula at the speed of technology, developing skills and competencies that cannot be readily replaced by computers.”