Learn Entrepreneurship to Shape a Better Future

Are your skills futureproof?
Many associate this question with the assumption that robots will take over our jobs at a given moment in the future. For many years, this approach has been feeding the fear that automation will replace humans, and somehow, it switched the spotlight from the real issue. Automation is creating jobs and people need to develop skills to fill the digital transformation talent gap.
Thus, ‘man versus the robots’ sounds more like a Sci-Fi film scenario than what the future might hold.

Speaking of movies, a character from Ex Machina says something that sums up robophobia or any sort of world destruction fear from technology.

“We don't need AIs to destroy us, we have our own arrogance.”
Climate change denial and overexploitation of natural resources for instant profit are examples of such arrogance.

 

Skills for the future of work

Back to automation. It is already displacing some jobs, mostly tasks that are considered dangerous or dull for humans. meanwhile, people in those occupations will have the opportunity to upgrade their skills for more stratifying and better-paying jobs. Moreover, people will be needed to develop and deploy new technologies, automation, digitalization, AI, robotics, etc. Those are the people who will work in jobs that now we can’t even imagine.

If you look at some of the top jobs in 2021, you’ll notice that many didn’t exist 10 or 15 years ago.
That’s normal considering the pace of technology development.
What’s seems to be out of this normal but fast-paced progress, is education.
In general, it takes up to 15 years of education to make a child or young person ready for the labor market.
Because new jobs are created every decade, schools should be teaching children skills about jobs that don’t exist when they enter school. But does that happen?

Now, we mostly have standardized education and curricula, and collective tests. All those are designed for a future and society that don’t differ much from the present.

Education systems have often been referred to as rigid, and the sudden COVID19 outbreak proved that to be true. Children are different, and they learn at their own pace and time while a given education system moves at the same pace for everyone who’s part of it. That’s why a small percentage of children move up into the advanced group, others keep the average pace, while some fall back. Remote education due to the coronavirus pandemic pointed out this fault within educational systems. No matter what the access of children to education resources and online school was, all were provided the same resources. In the end, they all took the same universal exams. All this gives the impression that education is all about exam results. This type of efficiency-driven system doesn’t reflect other significant aspects of the educational experience.

The work that good teachers do with their students in building better relationships, as well as social and emotional intelligence, will matter in the future when they enter the labor market.
Those are soft skills that help adaptability in a fast-changing workplace. Thus, no matter if we don’t know what jobs might appear in ten years, we might have the capacity and the skillset to adapt to new professional environments.

 

Skills to futureproof the wellbeing of the planet

Skills shouldn’t be only for the future of work. They should also focus on the well-being of the planet. Otherwise, what would be the point of a short-term prospering economy on a doomed planet?
First, the abovementioned standardized education should switch to universal access to education. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) a key enabler of all the Sustainable Development Goal 4 on Quality Education and all the other SDGs.
According to UNESCO, ESD empowers learners of all ages with the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes to address the interconnected global challenges we are facing, including climate change, environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity, poverty, and inequality. It makes it possible that learners find solutions for the challenges of today and the future.

Entrepreneurial education is one way to help people of all ages gain skills and knowledge that they can use in developing sustainable businesses and enterprises. Moreover, it helps break down certain conventional ideas such as the one that only a specific group of people with a specific education, and with access to advanced technology can be successful and innovative entrepreneurs.

Success is not standardized. It depends on context, circumstances, and many other local factors. No one can say for sure, what’s the way to success. Yet, it does not require a degree in an advanced field of study. In the current situation, there is not enough time left to pursue the traditional way of doing things. First five years of university education, then work to gain some experience and afterward launch a startup.
Everyone can try to be an entrepreneur, no matter the age or education as long as one has a solution to a challenging issue.

If you like the idea, you can take the free online training provided by the Entrepreneurship Campus, or join the Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition with a sustainable idea or project.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash