Skills for the Future

As a member of SPARK – a service organisation based in Tuticorin, which is into creating awareness among school children on a number of topics related to health care, legal issues, social concerns and career guidance, I have the opportunity to periodically meet school students and discuss about choosing their career paths.

We have two programmes on this regard. One programme is called “Pathfinder” for students of Std X, to choose the right path based on their interest areas and the next programme is called “Plus Two! What Next?” for students of Std XII, to make them aware of the many undergraduate/diploma courses available to them to pursue, after completion of +2. In this programme we advise them to apply the IKIGAI 4 criteria test, before choosing their higher education. The 4 criteria’s are:

• Passion - What are the things you like doing?

• Competency-What are you good at?

• Relevance – What do people want?

• Earnability – What will people pay for?

 

While the answer to question 1 and 2, can be found with some amount of contemplation and assessment tools, the answer to question 3 and 4 is something everyone is clueless about.  So this question posed on them, happens to backfire at me, a number of times, when they ask me, “Sir, which course do you think, will have scope in the future?”

 

With the rapid changes that are happening, especially in the era of artificial intelligence, it is really difficult to make a wild guess. And also considering that the students, I am meeting at the 12^th Std, will have at least another 5 years, to complete their studies before they could come to the workplace, we really don’t have any idea, how the scenario will look like, at that point of time. So, as a responsible adult, I should be advising properly, instead of giving some fancy answer which I feel is right, just to sound like a futuristic thinker.  It is a question of their career, which is a very important decision they are taking in life. So, I have been long contemplating over this.

I recently watched a YouTube video, by leading thinker of our times and the author of the popular books, “Sapiens” and “Homo Deus”- Yuval Noah Harari, and I seemed to find an answer for this nagging question in my mind. In that video, he talks about two skills that he says will be essential for humans to stay competitive over a long haul. The two skills are:

• Ability to UPGRAGE

• Ability to ADAPT

I pondered over it, and felt that, there is a lot of truth behind, his words. So, these two are interlinked skills, one following the other.

 

UPGRADE means that we need to start considering education as a continuous process that doesn’t end at school. We should continue to learn specialised skills in our own field and also diversified skills from other fields. Thankfully, we have so much of online learning options, available today in the form of webinars, online courses through websites like Udemy, Coursera etc, to learn any subject of our choice. So, we have to make a conscious effort to update ourselves and keep learning new skills that keeps cropping up as a requirement, to grow in our work place. It may be related to use of some new software, technology or machinery. Whatever it may be, we need to be prepared.

ADAPT means, that when some major shift happens and a dire situation arises, we should be able to shift job verticals or even move to a different industry. We should be willing to let go of our existing jobs, which no longer seem relevant or profitable and do the jobs that is in demand. Adding fuel to the fire, Prof. Harari says, that this transition might happen more frequently than we can imagine, within our life time. A rough estimate is a decade i.e. we should be capable of switching to completely new careers once in 10 years.  This is not as easy as it sounds. It is a difficult process, but this is anticipated reality. It calls for a major shift in our mindsets.

Time to question ourselves, what is it that we are preparing our children for at schools and college? Are we parting knowledge and skills or are we developing their attitude and ability to stay UPDATED and to be ADAPTABLE to the changing environment.

 D. Senthil Kannan,

  Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

  Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

  Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com