I was really alarmed when I read the ‘The Future of Jobs’ report by the World Economic Forum and this excerpt particularly caught my eye:
“On average, by 2020, more than a third of the desired core skill sets of most occupations will be comprised of skills that are not yet considered crucial to the job today, according to our respondents. Overall, social skills—such as persuasion, emotional intelligence and teaching others—will be in higher demand across industries than narrow technical skills, such as programming or equipment operation and control. In essence, technical skills will need to be supplemented with strong social and collaboration skills.” And “By one popular estimate, 65% of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in completely new job types that don’t yet exist.”
I then read a report from the Treasury ‘Fixing the foundations: Creating a more prosperous nation’ from less than 2 years ago, in Section 3: A highly skilled workforce, it states the government will:
- target ‘coasting’ schools for improvement as well as outright school failure, improve teaching quality, and make schools funding fairer
- respond to businesses’ calls to improve work-ready skills. Reforms are increasing the rigour of GCSEs and A levels, including in maths and science
My concern is there’s not a single indication of this dramatic change that is needed NOW in our education system to prepare our children for their future and employment prospects.
We need to take action NOW, what is it that you can do?
Thank you very much,
Love LIFE!
Alan
