Jobs in the not-so-distant future
It’s not uncommon to hear how we are preparing our students for a future that we don’t even know, or that some large percentage of jobs of the future have yet to be created. Computer World published an article last month titled, “Hot Skills, Cold Skills: The IT worker of 2010 won’t be a technology guru but rather a ‘versatilist.’” According to the article, in the IT sector there will be a shift away from technical skills such as programming, coding and operations towards things such as project leadership and enterprise architecture.
Granted this is only a prediction regarding one sliver of the future workforce, but the more lucrative careers being sought after by our students will probably require a similar set of skills. How are our schools preparing our students for these future jobs? Are we choosing tools and pedagogies that are in line with what we often refer to as “21st century skills?” Those who have just graduated from high school will be our college graduates in 2010. Will they be prepared with the requisite skills?
Many probably will, no thanks to anything we’re doing in our schools. These are the students that persevere regardless of what happens around them. But what about the other students… Is our curriculum so deeply embedded in the 20th century that there will be an expanding skill gap between those that land these jobs of the future and the others who don’t...or simply can’t? Where does this put us in the global marketplace? As individuals? As a country? I think this is yet another indicator of how out of touch we truly are...how we are moving (slowly) down the wrong path.
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