Today, due to the changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we are living in an era where time is fluid, and each aspect of our world is undergoing a massive shift. Education is no exception.
India has a young talent pool that is estimated to become the world’s largest by 2030. With more automated, digitised and fluid job markets, today’s higher education systems increasingly demand an evolved infrastructure that can keep pace with the future. Here are the four biggest challenges to our higher education model:
Continuous learning
Today, education models need to prepare our children for a new era. We are currently in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, where the impact of digitisation will extend in new and unanticipated ways. The demand for life-long learning will be higher than ever before. People need to continually learn and update their skills in order to stay relevant. This means continuous learning in different ways, for different purposes, and at various career stages. So we need to build education models that reflect this change and a culture that promotes it.
The concept of life-long learning, while not new, has changed. An increasing number of jobs require substantial interaction with technology, moulded by technological disruption, labour mechanisation and more flexible and fluid employment. The conventional mindset of — education early in life to be ready for work-life later — is outdated and no longer reflects the individualised and unexpected routes of modern careers. However, schools alone cannot be expected to execute the complex combinations of STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths), and imbibe digital and transferable skills like collaboration, problem solving and communication that young people will need in their future careers.
Student-led demand
Like any other sector, the changing demands of the students have driven changes in education. A one-size-fits-all approach does not agree with today’s generation. The Gen Z entering higher education has an absolutely different point of exit than the previous generations. As digital natives, technology has been fully integrated into most phases of their lives. And their entire career is driven by it in some form or other. So, students are increasingly embracing a consumer’s mindset and opting for flexible, seamless and bespoke educational experiences to achieve their goals.
Skill, not degrees
The traditional way of thinking led us to believe that success in professional life was directly linked to a higher education degree. But the worth of degrees is being questioned now more than ever before, with technology disrupting the way we learn and transitioning the way we apply knowledge. While many companies still scour through degrees for a potential employee’s abilities, there is a dynamic shift among some corporates to develop new ways of gauging employability.
New academic models
Many new ed-tech startups and academic models are disrupting traditional educational institutions and operating models. The future higher education landscape will almost certainly include disruptive new entrants, who use technology and data to introduce new and alternative approaches that deliver better on the evolving expectations of the learners
The notion of education developed for the earlier generation is changing and renovated and higher education is no exception. Educational institutes must reassess their roles now and what they will be in the future.
The writer is Co-founder and CEO, EuroKids International.
