Whether you are a business leader, an educator, a student, or an employee, your work will
be very different in the future.
Artificial Intelligence and automation are taking on many repetitive tasks, forcing us
to rethink the skills we need, the way we learn, and the speed with which we need to
retool to stay employed in the future.
To understand how business leaders and educators are preparing current and future workforces,
we surveyed 600 organizations and over 250 higher education institutions globally.
They told us the changes they are making and the challenges they face in preparing tomorrow‘s
workforce for the future of work.
Of those surveyed, 80% of business leaders and 72% of higher education institutions said
preparing workers and students to work alongside emerging digital technologies like AI bots
is extremely critical.
But the transition can be overwhelming for leaders and educators.
In fact, 70% of employers and educators are concerned about their ability to prepare workers
for this new reality.
To deal with this issue, our future of learning equation combines three critical elements
of change required to augment human intelligence and capacity.
First, identify skills for hybrid work.
Technical skills will continue to be important in the future … and when blended with human-centric
skills, they will create an edge over machines that'll allow those with hybrid skills to
thrive.
Of the organizations surveyed, 41% are gearing up for skill development and are in the process
of reskilling the workforce.
Unfortunately, 44% of higher education institutions have not yet started this process.
Second, overhaul training content more frequently.
Forty-three percent of organizations surveyed update their learning content on an annual
or biennial basis.
In the future, updates will occur every five months or on a continuous basis.
This is a change that 62% of organizations agreed will require a different mindset … and
one that transitions from “we create content” to “we curate content.”
Higher education institutions claimed to update their curriculum every two to six years.
By 2023, only 30% of these institutions will have shifted to updating their curriculums
annually.
Third, developing training and teaching methods that focus on “how to learn” over “what
to learn.”
AI is the next giant leap in personalized learning.
Over the next five years, colleges will see a 200% increase in adoption of AI for teaching
purposes, compared with a 150% increase in organizations using AI for training purposes.
Our data also revealed tremendous interest from respondents in both businesses and colleges
to leverage augmented and virtual reality to transform teaching methods over the next
five years.
The three elements of learning need to be combined with self-learning to ensure individuals
are not left behind.
Sixty-six percent of colleges agree that in the future, everyone will need to be lifelong
learners to keep pace with accelerating knowledge-work demands.
At the heart of learning’s future is the speed mandate that will determine how fast
or slow organizations, individuals, colleges, and economies succeed in the near future.
To meet the speed of market needs and technological change, the elements of learning must accelerate.
In fact, nearly 80% of organizations believe that employable skills will evolve more rapidly
in the future.
The digital economy will not wait for those unprepared to identify and capture the opportunities
of tomorrow.
Our future of learning framework serves as a starting point for understanding what every
individual needs to succeed in the work ahead.
And as many organizations and higher education institutions embrace the future of learning,
they must collaborate with expert partners to successfully manage the transformative
and disruptive impact of the new machine age.
Learn how to master the art of learning.
Gain valuable insights required to excel in the future of work by reading our new report
“Relearning how we learn — from the campus to the workplace” … available now at futureofwork.com
and Cognizant.com.