Fast forward to 2045, your 5-year old is in their 30s. What does the world look like? What does the job market look like? How do we prepare our children to inhabit and succeed in this future world?
According to the below video by thecentreofthenet.com: Consistent with today’s rate of change, technology will experience 20 000 years’ of growth in this century. And that today’s top ten jobs, did not exist in 2004.
Director General of the United Nations office in Geneva, Michael Møller, writes for Huffington Post in 2015 that “if you ask any teacher, they will tell you that one of the greatest challenges they face is to educate a generation of children today for a set of jobs that will arise tomorrow.” Only ten years ago, there were no
- web developers
- bloggers
- social media managers
- video journalists
- app developers
“All of these jobs have sprung up in recent years and the speed with which jobs require an unprecedented set of skills keeps growing,” says Møller.
I have to echo the words of my hero, Ken Robinson here, who, in the below (animated RSA) Ted Talk asks: “How do we educate our children to take their place in the economies of the 21st century? Given that we can’t anticipate what the economy will look like at the end of next week.”
We can’t know exactly which skills our kids will need in the future but I believe developing
- Curiosity
- Confidence
- Creative problem solving
- Strong communication skills
- Team work
in them, they will meet the future with some strong survival tools.
I would urge you to choose activities that nurture and develop these vital skills in your children. With the world population set to rise to 9 billion in 2050, it will sure be a very competitive place.
