Roshann.my

Does the future of learning need to be reimagined?

Understanding the past gives us a flavour of what to expect in the future... yet again, we are faced with this ever-deepening puzzle of preparing our youth to contribute to the global economy. Right here, right now is our answer to reimagining education... but how?

From my unique perspective of joining the corporate world when I was barely 18 years of age, 3 areas will need to be focused to revolutionise learning:

1. Value creation

In our increasingly digital economy, value creation has become less of a priority as opposed to higher number of "likes" gathered & exam scores. As such, the focus will need to be reemphasised on human-centricity & building lasting value. Principles of value creation apply everywhere, from having a friendly tone at a call centre all the way to providing sound advice as a chartered accountant. All businesses including not-for-profits are in the business of creating value, towards making our world a better place. Teaching value creation can be achieved through earlier exposure of students to work through having intermittent job requirements for graduating (i.e. achieving a certain number of hours of work exposure). This will provide students with exposure to challenges & opportunities to solve them whilst contributing to the global economy, as opposed to life on campus reading textbooks for exams.

2. Agile mindset

Agility involves being able to evolve & adapt to whatever business needs. The agile methodology is still being used by successful startups such as Uber & AirBnb up today because it works. The agile methodology involves rituals which serve as a framework & can easily be implemented in education. An agile mindset essentially means that we will need to do anything & everything necessary to get the job done without being bogged down by job descriptions & titles whilst continuously asking what could be done better in order to improve.

3. Continuous upskilling

The only constant in the world in change & the pace of change is ever accelerating. More emphasis will need to place on how to face & embrace learning as a lifelong journey. We change by learning new ways of working, hence learning how to learn is an art & science which will need to be taught explicitly. The ways things are done 10 years ago are not the same as how things are done today, yet it is likely that we will need to continuously upskill ourselves to improve our work aptitude & diversity of skillsets. With digitalisation, a wide range of new mediums such as videos, podcasts & blogs can be used to complement traditional mediums like textbooks & research papers for students to maximise blended learning & leadership development.

By focusing on teaching value creation, building an agile mindset & emphasising continuous learning, the future of learning can make the world a better place. Then again, the world is not enough... as we've already landed a rover on Mars!