With COVID-19 onset, the dynamics and needs of the industry have changed a lot. Although it cannot be predicted with certainty the types of jobs that will exist in the future, today’s students will need a variety of skills, “21st century skills.” However, these are skills that students need today. Knowing this, industry stakeholders must ask themselves what are the best ways to provide all students with authentic, unique, and innovative learning experiences that will foster the development of these essential skills? How can students be prepared for jobs which may not exist yet in our ever-changing world? These are some important questions, which need to be answered.
Looking at the changes in the areas of education and work, students must be provided with ways to more actively learn and explore the world. No matter what students ultimately decide to do, they will have skills, real-world awareness, and flexibility that will have them well-equipped for a constantly changing system.
digitalLEARNING Magazine and Harappa Education organized a webinar on ‘Getting Students Career Ready for the NEW World of Work’ with some eminent speakers from the industry. The discussion highlighted the changes in the industry and needs for the future.
Chocko Valliappa, VC, Sona Institutions, Founder, HireMee said “There will a lot of changes coming in the near future. The world will be getting back to normal soon. The new-age entrepreneurs are coming up. The gig economy will come up. The model of education will change with NEP. The world is moving towards virtual era.”
He also said “Now, new skills are becoming more relevant. The govt is doing good to develop the skill education within students. This is a world of specialists and things will change.”
“Now more are more people coming to the virtual world and will have more robots and machines in the coming days. The NEP advocates more focus on technology”, he added.
“We are in a technology world and students are very tech-savvy. We are also trying to build technologies for the education sector. The rural students have huge challenges. We need to develop more technologies in the education sector”, he added.
AICTE is more emphasizing on getting faculty from industry. Blended learning will be the new normal in the coming days, he added.
Dr. Rajan Welukar, Vice-Chancellor, AURO University, Surat; Former VC, Mumbai University said “The future will be complexly complex. This year is called ‘Zero Year’. This situation is asking us to introspect ourselves and must prepare resilient minds to tackle the crisis.”
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“In the future, those who will not employ themselves, nobody will employ them. The changes have happened very fast in the 21st century. The gossip has changed into a career. The career options have changed a lot. We need to learn new things as the world is changing every day”, he added.
“Every young person must find the motive of his or her life. We must focus on Passion, purpose and lifelong learning. Our younger generation needs life skills and training for future”, he added.
Emphasizing on skill sets, he said “Sense-making, object and subject, operating system 4.0, social intelligence skills, cross competency, data, media literacy, trans-disciplinary, design mind-set, virtual collaboration and wonderful audit skills needed for the future.
He also said Young people want identity, status, independence.
He also said Value assessment for students is very important and each industry has different values.
“Teaching is one way, and creating a learning environment is also essential. Teachers must change their mindset. Content has lost its importance, creating experiences around the content is very important”, he added.
Dr. Sandeep Pachpande, Chairman, ASM Education Group said “New business models are created due to digitization. There are many changes in VUCA world. Technology will be an important part in the coming days as the workforce will be more fluid. We are moving towards the gig economy. Things will change very drastically in the coming days.”
“Now, the definition of success has changed. Many firms are changing their business strategies to cope with the changing world”, he added.
We are preparing students for unknown. We need a holistic approach towards education as the physical education will never go out of demand, he added.
“We need to change the mind-set of students. Students want everything instantly. Critical and design thinking must be given importance. The current situation is how to survive in crisis and then to grow,” he added.
He also said curriculum plays an important role and must provide inculcate with specific skill sets.
Prof. Subramanya, Principal, R.V. College of Engineering, Bengaluru said “There is a lot of pressure on the younger generation over the technology change. The business sector is looking into innovation. Digital learning was not very common in our country, but we have adapted it well in the pandemic. We must adopt new changes”.
Over the future, he said “Education 4.0 advocates anywhere, anytime. There will be evaluation not examinations in the coming days. There will be a lot to change in education. A global mind-set will be developed within the younger generation. For the next 10 years, many things will change.”
More learning is happening outside of classroom. Skills have to be a part of education. Now the time has come from outside to inside. AICTE has also introduced activity points, he added.
“Skills must be developed among children. Our pattern is teacher-centric and with the National Education Policy, we are moving towards children–centric education. We will change the learning styles and failure handing will be a problem”, he added.
“Getting connected with industry is very important. The bondage of industry and institutions is growing in the last few years. We need to bring entrepreneurship culture within students”, he added.
