Yet what we saw through the 20th century was the acceleration of change, which pervaded every aspect of our lives. However how much more so has this rate of change impacted our lives in the last 25 years? This is most obvious in the technology we use and the way we use it. We think in particular of the advent of the internet as an everyday part of our lives, and in turn the use of smartphones to accomplish internet-enabled tasks and receive and understand information relevant to our day to day lives: from banking to news, from shopping to finding and booking our restaurants and holidays.
Do we remember how we marvelled at this new capability, even with its clunkiness while in its infancy. We take for granted today the extraordinary power and utility of this technology. We have seen the extent to which it has created fundamental change, whether for example in largely making obsolete landline telephones or the need to own those DSLR cameras to which we all aspired. We also think of our sources of electronic entertainment, and marvel at the extent to which our children and grandchildren use streaming services rather than free-to-air television, and obtain the bulk of their news from social media sites rather than traditional newspapers.
More recently we have seen the beginnings and rise of Artificial Intelligence. Despite the rate at which we have embraced change and taken up the “hard” technology, it seems to me we are more reticent to embrace the change being wrought by AI. Whether through fear of change or lack of understanding we have seen a level of resistance and reactivity. The reality is however that AI is unstoppable and will impact every part of our lives. In turn it will lead to change about which we can only wonder.
So what does all this mean in the workforce?
No-one is suggesting that we no longer need employees with technical skills, whether accounting or metallurgical and everything in between. The reality is however that these skills in tomorrow’s world will co-exist with the impact of AI, and the employee of tomorrow will need to be able to adapt and change; to be creative and innovative. Indeed the world of the 20th century which saw long term employment with a single or few employers and where entire careers were built around single occupations or building a career of advancement and promotion of the foundation of those skills has already largely disappeared.
Yet we see an education system which remains largely geared to teaching our high school students these increasingly marginalised skills.
As a business person and company director, I am interested in looking for employees who have been trained to think broadly and critically; to have the ability to take core skills and look to ways to apply them with creativity and innovation; to have superior levels of communication and collaboration skills; and to have the ability to flourish as a complete person.
As an employer we no longer see employment with us as permanent, nor through the traditional prism of a contract whereby the employer provides a job and opportunity to use skills and gain experience, in return for hard work and opportunity for advancement. Rather it is more of a partnership where our employees are encouraged to bring the totality of their capability and contribute in flexible ways. We talk often about being an “employer of choice”, and the elements which make up such a description are becoming increasingly broadened from the narrow opportunity to use technical skills, to learning and contributing and being part of an employment ecosystem which for example is community and environmentally responsible.
This then is the context in which I believe our schools need to adapt in order to focus on equipping students for this new reality. Our schools themselves need to look to the future and recognise that there is no reality greater than this continuing pace of change, and to have the innovative capability to themselves look to their teaching approach and methodology which will equip our students to embrace change; to be well suited to the demands of workforce and life in the mid 21st century.
This is why I am passionate about Vivedus. It is a learning activation company which especially underpins the ability to think creatively in this new world of change and AI. Vivedus itself is applying these precepts which deliver an AI-enabled platform to teach and assess creative intelligence and importantly to underpin the ability of teachers to have clear insight into the quality and impact of teaching and learning.
As an employer our task is not to try to predict this AI-driven future, so much as it is to ensure that we have a cadre of employees whom we know have the critical skills, thinking and creativity to be able to cope and thrive with whatever comes; and perhaps more importantly to be able to not only embrace that change but to shape it to our advantage.
As we reflect on the people whose impact we recognise most during the period I have written about, I would suggest it is the people in all facets of life who have demonstrated this kind of capability of creativity. We cannot all appear on the cover of Time magazine, but we can recognise the reality of this new world and focus on best equipping our students to meet and embrace the challenge in whatever way is most fulfilling for them. Our workplaces are and will increasingly look for this capability.
