The skills needed for future work
November 30th, 2022 will go down in history as being the date the world changed for the better or for the worse. This was the date that ChatGPT was launched as a prototype to the world. AI and machine learning are here, and they will change the way we work, and the skills need to operate in the businesses of the future.
The last update to the National Curriculum in the UK was back in 2010 (1). The reforms that were put in place were been driven by the idea that the transmission of rich subject knowledge should be the priority for schools. Like most people, we were all taught to remember dates, times, and facts at school. A lot of this knowledge will not have been used throughout your adult life or at work. However, understanding Trigonometry, or when the Normans conquered England, was always more about the process of learning and allowing students to experiment in finding joy or interest in the subjects.
What will we need to learn in the future and what skills will be important?
With the advent of Google, and now the introduction of ChatGPT, the knowledge of the world is at everyone’s fingertips. Rather than spending hours in the school library researching your homework, you can find the answer in seconds, and you can even ask AI to write it up for you. Like most of us, I was always taught to be able to solve any maths problem without using a calculator, as you might not have access to one when you are working. This seems fairly funny today, as every computer and phone has one on it. Which brings me back to the central question, what will children need to learn and what skills will they need to flourish in the future workplace?
Rather than learning facts and figures, children will need to develop more ‘soft’ skills. They will have real-time data, access to all available knowledge, and there will be a YouTube video showing them how to do everything. Given this, these are the essential skills I believe all children will need when entering the workplace in the future.
Resilience – This has been talked about a lot over the last few years. It will become ever more important for everyone, especially people new to the workplace. The world is moving at an ever-increasing pace, and we are spending more and more time on computers/phones. This means we have less time to ourselves. When do we get downtime in a world that is constantly connected? As the world moves faster, the more change everyone will experience. According to a report (published by Dell Technologies and authored by the Institute For The Future (IFTF) and a panel of 20 tech, business, and academic experts from around the world) 85% of the jobs that will exist in 2030 have not even been invented yet. New technology, changing jobs and careers, plus working in a more hybrid way will become the norm, and the more resilient you are to this and change, the better you will be prepared to thrive in work.
Emotional Intelligence (EI) – As we are leading more solitary life and more of our social activity is done virtually, we are starting to lose some of the core skills that make us great communicators, leaders, and colleagues. In the UK, in the last ten years, 8.3% more people are living alone, with over 36% of people in London living alone. At the same time, we are moving jobs more regularly and spending less time with family and friends. When adding this up, you can see why understanding and developing EI will be such an advantage in the workplace of the future. Self-awareness; Self-regulation; Internal Motivation; Empathy and Social Skills, together, these make up EI and they are developed socially and through feedback from trusted people i.e. family and friends. Regardless of qualification, and even experience, social skills, and empathy will be the skills more in demand by employers. As with resilience, the workplace will be evolving continually, and the leaders with EI will be best placed to guide their teams through it.
Problem Solving – This can be summed up by talking about Lego! The humble little brick from Denmark was the mainstay of many Christmas presents for people of a certain generation. Once the designed item had been built, using the given instructions, the bricks were thrown into a large box with all the other bricks from other packs. This is when the fun really started, building with imagination, using problem solving skills, and learning to make mistakes. Fast forward 30 years or so, and today's models are tightly prescriptive and do not allow for imagination and problem solving. The workplace of the future will need people that can use their imagination and solve problems, as a team or individually. The ones that can do this will be at an advantage. With technology doing more and more for us, the art of problem solving in our children is falling away. We need more mixed Lego brick thinking.
Overall Thoughts
Being able to read, write and add up will always be important. However, with AI, machine learning, and the ever-increasing pace of technological advancement, the workplace of the future will look very different from today. The jobs we do will be different, so it makes sense the skills needed will be different. Give yourself, your children, and people you work with an advantage. Start working on your: Resilience, Emotional Intelligence, and Problem-Solving skills.
