Jobs Of The Future Will Look Radically Different: Workforce Prep Needs To As Well

Chances are your career looks nothing like the work of your parents. It may not look much like itself from even a few years ago.

Get used to it.

Today’s jobs are, by and large, transformed from those of a generation or even just a decade ago. As a result, the qualifications, credentials, and experiences needed to secure those jobs are similarly changed. There is an emerging recognition in U.S. education policy and practice that our schools can and should do a better job of equipping students with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in a rapidly changing world of work.

As we look around the corner to the occupations of tomorrow, the first thing we need to embrace is the notion that change is eternal.

The world’s leading education systems understand that reality and are organizing their schools, institutions, and policies to be more dynamic and future oriented–especially when it comes to career and technical education. That’s happening in school systems in the U.S. and abroad.

In Indiana, the state’s Workforce Cabinet oversees all career education, coordinates with all agencies including K-12, higher education, and economic development authorities, and makes targeted investments in high-value sectors. Work-based and project-based learning are increasingly built into the experience of all students. The goal, state leaders say, is to ensure that the workforce pathways are aligned with the needs of employers and are actually connecting students with good-paying jobs and other post-secondary pathways today and in the future.

“Our focus has also been on providing students with stackable credentials of value; that have meaning in the workforce,” explained Indiana state Career and Technical Education (CTE) director Anthony Harl recently after a national convening of state CTE leaders. “Implementing credentials of value is an ongoing process. We are always looking at how to stay relevant and responsive to our employers.”

Similarly, in Finland, the Ministry of Education has an aptly named “Anticipation Unit” that monitors the economy and labor market in real-time. It then projects out what current trends mean for the future and how education and career pathways must adapt and evolve to meet the future needs of employers and the national economy.

In a recent brief, the National Center on Education and the Economy, looks at how school systems and leaders around the world, including Indiana and Finland, are?building agility and continuous improvement?into the very fabric of schooling and career pathways. Researchers are seeing four key trends shaping the future of school and work-based career pathways.

Read the full article via Forbes.