Rethink Education and Expand Mind-Set to Bridge the Skill Gap

Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity. – Aristotle

Aim: The aim of this article is to show that how innovation transformed Job Opportunities. We are witnessing wholesale job devastation and increasing unemployment gap. Today dissatisfaction, anxiety, stress, depression, unhappiness are the words we commonly hear around.The future is full of possibilities provided we understand the potential impact of automation on employment.It is high time to rethink education and expand mind set to reap the benefits of innovation. There is a need for Skill up gradation by every individual, every organisation, every institution. Education system must encourage Self exploration and continuous learning.

Introduction:

Dissatisfaction is the womb of change and it opens door for immense possibilities. It is the single most dominant factor that propels proactive change. Right now, the world is clueless about what might be the net impact of accelerating waves of technological change on employment and economic prospects for the individual. As an optimist we must redirect our energies to reap the benefits of technological change. It is high time to revamp education system to fill the employment gap left by those that are displaced by technology and to explore the possibilities of new roles that will be created by innovation and automation.

Time to Rethink Education, Reskilling the nation and expand Mind-sets
In next 10-20 years, the economies may be reinvented by exponential technologies such as AI, 3D/4D printing, synthetic biology, lab grown food, vertical farming, autonomous vehicles, hyper loop transport, and smart materials. In such a scenario, it is abundantly clear that it is high time for massive action, rethink education, reskill nation and expand mind-set to ensure learning for all so that everyone is able to absorb and apply the skills necessary to prosper in the 21st century.”

Everyone need to be equipped with digital skills and soft skills, beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic to prepare society for the potential impacts of technological disruption, job automation and continuing shifts taking place in globalisation.

Our Education system must help people rethink:

why we choose to live a mediocre life?
Why we choose to settle for less?
Why do so many people waste their precious lives for what fails to inspire them and others?
Why some people keep struggling for money for life and why some people come out of that struggle for money and live rich?

Is it about bad luck or good luck? or is it about How you set your mental thermostat?

Our society need transition from “Fixed Mind-set” to “Growth oriented Mind-set”.Growth mind-set thrives on challenges and sees failure “not as evidence of unintelligence but as heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities.
A growth mind-set believes in learning and growing. People with a growth mind-set have a voracious appetite for learning, constantly seeking out the kind of input that they can metabolize into learning and constructive action while fixed mind set assumes that our character, intelligence and creative ability are static.

The fixed mind-set can negatively impact all aspects of life. Growth and the willingness to change are inseparable. If we will have same belief system, same mind-set and same actions, nothing will change.

Don’t wait for a nightmare to get into action.

. We need to adopt education system that:

1. Must promote learning attitude rather than a hunger for approval.
2. Must teach how to embrace and acknowledge weakness and work on them instead of hiding weakness
3. Must teach to share progress with others
4. Must teach to appreciate
5. Must promote the culture for growth.
6. Learn from other’s mistake and to accept we all have our share of weakness, no one is perfect
7. Must cultivate grit
8. Must create the ability to create new goals and to keep themselves stimulated

Let’s create a new world of possibilities opportunities and abundance with revamping the education system that help in develop growth mind set. To build a new world, a new mind-set is needed.

Our ability to survive and thrive in a rapidly evolving landscape, our capacity to navigate a turbulent landscape will be driven by

1. Level of Education system
2. Capacity to think. Reason and solve problems
3. Ability to learn new skills and approaches quickly
4. Mastery of Life skills
5. Ability to collaborate
6. Digital literacy
7. Ability to cope with uncertainty and handling complexity
8. To evaluate quality of information
9. Ability to ask interesting questions and to define problems
10. To think critically,
11. To analyse the probabilities
12. To analyse and change our own habits and thoughts
13. To translate ideas and paradigm from one domain to another
14. To mentor and to be mentored,

We require much more; these were to name a few.

Time to reimaging and revamping the Education System for Job creation:

We needan education system that can prepare the students for uncertain future, guiding them about new Job avenues helping them to get placements. There is need to design small term employment oriented courses with a scope for further advancement. Our education policy must ensure readjusting the skills and knowledge base in the country at every level.The faculty must have some practical experience in Industry.Encouraging and incentivizing adults to enter into continuing education while still in employment. Confidence building programs for unemployed, basic literacy support for those who have been left behind.Vacant facilities in schools, colleges and universities could be used for running evening programs for working force. Support system could be provided for communities to self organize education and skill programs. For those who are made redundant or struggling to find work in their sector, an option might be to retrain for a new career. The primary purpose would be to help develop the skill and personal competencies required for the new world of work. Our education system must be such that it encourages individuals to keep acquiring skills to help them move from job to job.
These are just a handful of the many ideas we have been exploring for how to address the challenges presented by a world in transition.

Our education system must make transition period smooth. It is an increasing priority as medium to large organizations slim down their work force through competitive pressures and automation. We need less grading, less memorization of facts and formulae, fewer videos of lecture and and fewer multiple choice tests. We need more active learning collaboration, exploration, peer feedbacks, debate, simulations, interviews, metacognitive reflection, prototyping projects and portfolios, we need learning at every level to blend the continual play of preschool and the self directed deep exploration of doctoral programs. There is a great need for Social and emotional learning.

Conclusion:

The cost of inaction and poorly educated workforce could be a big dent to growth of economy as there will be wastage of human capital and low morale.
We got to transform our education system and learn to set our thermostat for reaping the benefits of technological advancement. There are enough opportunities for people with growth mind-set. Instead of inaction and negative thinking it is time for massive action and empowering thinking for great take off.

Ms. Indu Aggarwal
Co- Founder Disha for Success