Disruption of work – what students need to know
This week we are looking at work and jobs disruption and potential opportunities, what students need to know and how they can learn for the future.
This week we are looking at work and jobs disruption and potential opportunities, what students need to know and how they can learn for the future.
To start this week’s look at automation and implications for learning in schools, the World Economic Forum and McKinsey have shared insights from Davos on the future of learning and work and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
There appear to be plenty of opportunities for students to explore trends around the future of food, and identify opportunities to work and do business in this area. Investigations into alternative proteins as a food source, business models, entrepreneurship, science and data in agriculture, emerging jobs, analysis of job shortages, the list goes on.
With students and schools in mind we’re looking to take a balanced view of what’s happening in the world of robots and work, referencing some sound research and looking at examples of how robots are affecting firms and workers. We’re also going to take a look at recent technical achievements, along with issues that are starting to appear and are evolving.
Welcome to Industry 4.0 – one in which large scale manufacturing combines with personalisation, constant changes to product lines, fewer human workers, vastly improved efficiency and extremely short delivery times. So what does this mean for learning?
This week’s focus is squarely on technology and automation, what the research indicates what’s happening right now, and suggests what might happen in the future.
AI is already everywhere, and we’ve written about it before. AI decides what we see on Youtube, Netflix and social media. Amazon’s supply chain can’t run without it, and we need to get used to the fact that it’s here to stay. But, as with any emerging digital technology, AI presents enormous opportunities to benefit us, and potential problems as well. Today we’re looking at what some of the challenges might be, along with what young people need to be aware of and talking about, if they’re not already.
Let’s look at what’s happening with the automation of work, become informed, start a conversation about what skills and competencies might be needed, what this means for our students, teachers, schools, learning systems, communities and societies.
The nature of almost all forms of work is changing rapidly, and new skills are required. Routine manual and cognitive tasks such as factory work and analysis are being replaced or augmented by robots and machine learning. Agriculture is becoming automated. So what is happening in the world of work, and how can we prepare for what’s coming?
This article takes a look at automation in Industry 4.0, and questions whether education systems are preparing students for a new world of work.