Thinking Differently

Children joining Reception Star Class in 2011 won’t be entering the work force until around the year 2030. One of the most striking things to consider is the idea that many of the most sought after jobs   in 2030 probably don’t even exist yet. At the European Futurists Conference held in Lucerne in 2010, the kinds of jobs that will exists in 2020, but don’t exist now, were debated. Examples included Body Part Maker, Nano-Medic, Climate Change Reversal, Waste Data Handler,  Social ‘Networking’ Worker and Personal Branders.

As educators and parents we are currently preparing our children for jobs that don’t exist yet, using technologies that haven’t been invented, in order to solve problems that we don’t even know are problems yet.

The challenge for parents and schools is equipping children with skills required for them to thrive in such an exponentially faster moving world. These skills focus on:

Critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and applied knowledge for practical results

Mastery of rigorous academic content, especially in literacy, mathematics, and information technologies

Innovative and creative thinking, including entrepreneurial skills

Communication skills, both oral and written

Team learning and work, relationship building, and interpersonal social skills

Personal responsibility, including good work habits, work ethic, knowing how to be flexible and continue learning, and financial literacy

Global awareness, languages, and understanding other cultures (including history, economics and geography)

In a world where much of the knowledge, facts & technology are rapidly changing, whatever you learn “now” has less and less value as time passes. Learning how to analyse, evaluate & understand what is “now”, and critically how it is changing, and then apply that understanding in creative ways, that is the way to be equipped for times of radical change.

Note: can we have a box or panel somewhere with the following text and a link to the video  (or an embedded frame?):

The  video below called “Did  You Know?” is a well-known Internet video from 2008 that tries to illustrate just how fast moving the world is , and that we truly live in “exponential times”.

HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2o2L5DUIuw" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2o2L5DUIuw