That future is not what it was for FET in a volatile, uncertain complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world. There are few things we can be certain of bar one: change. The pace of that change in the future will never be slower than it is today.
Let me tell you about Michael. Before his 50th birthday he will see Brazil, Russia and China rule the world economically. He has just seen China become the number one English speaking country in the world. The Chinese economy will overtake the United States ecomomy before he is 40. In the time it has taken me to write this sentence, 66 babies have been born in America, 250 in China and 350 in India. He considers e-mail to be old hat. Never uses it, it's old fashioned. It's for the ancient digital immigrants like me. Instead, he runs a social network site with thousands of people participating.
To reach 50 million users it took radio 38 years. It took television 22 years. It took the Internet 7 years and Facebook 4 years, but Pokemon Go had 50 million users 19 days after launching. That's the accelerated pace of change in Michael’s world. Like half the youth population in America, he can text with his eyes closed. On his 50th birthday, he will be given a cheap laptop that will be more powerful than the combined brainpower of the human race. He is going to live on average until he is 95. He is going to be running around a beach well into his 80's powered by body parts imported from abroad. If he leaves school at 18, he will probably have between 70-80 jobs. If he goes to university, he will probably have between 15-20 jobs. He is a minimalist, keeping it light. He needs a mobile phone, a laptop, a change of clothes and a passport, and he's good to go. Unlike his parents he doesn't want to own a piece of the world, he just wants to visit it. He will not talk in terms of a job for life, rather a job for the life of the contract. He will not just talk in terms of lifelong learning; long life learning will be part of his lexicon. His strong preference being to be seen as green and growing rather than ripe and rotting. Unlearning and relearning will be a way of life.
He will most likely take his children to a museum. What to see? Paper, pens, desks, blackboards whiteboards, and perhaps the odd stuffed FET educator! Professor Stephen Hawing predicted that the biggest threat facing Michael and his generation was the imminent dawn of the technological singularity. “The factory of the future will have only two employees: a man and a dog," the scholar and author Warren Bennis once said. "The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment.". The pool of employees Michael is in now is 5 times greater than it was ten years ago. That's great news for employers, but it is terrible news for Michael. He's a democrat, and he's passionate about social justice, and is fully aware that education is the great leveller, the only weapon he has to help him make his way in the world.
In this fast-paced ever-changing landscape the traditional 3 r’s of education have been replaced by the two A’s and the five C’s. Agility and adaptability, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication and compassion. Much of the potential solution to ensuring that education and FET remain future fit lies in the cultivation of emotional intelligence and the development of individuals who can assiduously think, motivate and solve problems for themselves. The ‘bogeyman’ of the pandemic perhaps ushering in the potential of a more compassionate solidarity based on trust and togetherness.
Perhaps we are on the cusp of a ‘Piper Alpha’ ‘moment. In the 80’s an oil rig off the coast of Scotland was engulfed in flames. One lucky individual awoke in time to face a hideous decision: to either stay on a platform engulfed in fiery flames or to jump from 15 stories to an unforgiving sea littered with floating debris and an uncertain outcome. He jumped. Fortunately he survived and upon being asked what had made him take the tumultuous decision to jump replied
We are all on a burning platform, with FET perhaps uniquely placed to embrace education from a new paradigm where it is seen through a WEIRD lens. Wisdom, encouraging a thought process that facilitates and encourages critical thinking. Emotional Intelligence, encouraging compassion and empathy. Initiative encouraging the co-facilitation of the learning process with the learner in control rather than a pillion passenger. Responsibility: if we want learners to show more of it, we have to create the conditions where it can be autonomously exercised. Development, putting the personal development of the learner at the heart of the learning process as the ultimate value add. The greatest inoculation against the inexorable encroachment of AI will be the strategic cultivation of the so called ‘soft skills’. Where the currency and unique selling point for humans in a VUCA AI-enhanced world will be their very humanity.
Images
Change by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0
Night-time traffic Public Domain
Industrial Robots by Mixabest, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Building blocks for success in the 21st century by Denise Krebs CC-BY-20
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