How should we prepare our children for the future? What will our children be doing in the future?

I am a bit sceptical of humans’ ability to predict the future. A good example of where it went wrong was John Maynard Keynes’s suggestion in 1930 that we would all be working a 15-hour week by 2030. But it would seem wise to frame tomorrow’s educational curriculum to cope with the rapid technological change. Therefore to an extent, we have to try to predict the possible jobs students will need to apply for in 2030.

During the industrial revolution, new jobs were created while other workers found their skills outdated. One of the fears when addressing the issue of preparing our students for the future is the time lag between preparation and output at the workplace.

Another fear faced in the classroom is how, as an educator, one can prepare students for the real situation at the workplace when it is so unknown. How can all this be overcome?

Recent research by John F. Gantz (2013) suggests that a small set of skills are overwhelmingly important when preparing our students. He talks about “job readiness” rather than “job training”. Using his work as an indicator of the future work needs, he emphases oral and written communication, problem-solving organisational skills, analytical skills and strong interpersonal skills.

That means we have to do some hard thinking as educators as to whether we have the right approach within our educational system to encourage innovation.

One of the fears when addressing the issue of preparing our students for the future is the time lag between preparation and output at the workplace

It also means taking education to a new level, to ensure that our children have the right skill set for the task. If it means we need to teach our children how to work productively alongside robots, then we have to do so. We need to make our kids job-ready.

It is an awesome task, especially considering the unknown elements ahead but we cannot afford for them to fall behind as some workers did during the industrial revolution.

Michelle Gialanze is an educational consultant.

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