The future of education remains a mystery as rapidly-changing technology shifts the way we work and teach students. Also, skills needed for employment continue to evolve, and the education sector must respond appropriately.

Education in Transition

Schools must focus on changing what they teach and how they teach it to ensure students prepare for the changing workforce. Moreover, the future of education depends on taking the best approach.

Changing What Schools Teach

Many of the jobs that today’s children will hold in the future are not in existence yet. Likewise, LinkedIn forecasts 150 million jobs in new technology within the next five years. Nearly every position listed on the “Jobs on the Rise” report by LinkedIn can become a remote job, indicating another future technology trend. Thus, it has created a variety of new possibilities for the job market.

The following types of skills will be needed by students for future jobs, sparking a shift in the content taught in schools:

1. Creativity and innovation skills, including analytical thinking and problem-solving
2. Diversity, including diversity of thought and cultural diversity
3. Ethics, specifically ethics of technology
4. Global citizenship, including sustainability and worldwide awareness
5. Interpersonal skills, including empathy, cooperation, emotional intelligence, and social awareness
6. Technology skills, including programming and data science

Changing How Schools Teach

The structure of our educational system has not changed much since its origination during the first Industrial Revolution. Additionally, students generally sit in rows facing the teacher, who delivers content to internalize. To adequately teach the skills and content needed for students to thrive in the future job market, the delivery of education also needs to evolve in the following ways:

1. Bite-sized learning to accommodate the average attention span of approximately 8 seconds; delivering education in small bits to maximize absorption and retention
2. Collaborative, problem-based, and project-intensive learning to reflect the current trends in the workplace
3. Immersive learning, utilizing technologies including augmented reality and virtual reality to bring life to diverse topics while also engaging students in an inclusive educational experience.  
4. Online learning and digitized content, which has been accelerated and necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic
5. Personalized, self-directed, and self-paced learning, which enables flexibility and pacing to meet the requirements of individual students

Changing School Trends

In addition to the “what” and “how” of teaching content and strategies, subtle changes to teaching and teachers could make education look very different shortly. Forthwith, it could get better with the following trends taking effect:

1. Assessments will evolve from multiple-choice tests to social interactions
2. New content areas will combine and shift the traditional math, English, science, and social studies
3. Networks will supplant content to encourage the growth of learning communities
4. New examples of content mastery will include media literacy, networking, and other skills necessary for a technology-driven society.

Rethinking the structure and content of our educational system is a daunting task. However, it is necessary if schools are to help students meet the rapidly shifting requirements of the 21st-century workplace.

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