INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION campusreview. com. au
How work will evolve
A market researcher offers his predictions for what the job world will look like in the near future, and gives advice for how higher education can keep up.
By James Wells
The university graduates of 2025 will need to be socially intelligent, experts in subject matter, independent learners, highly innovative, creative, and collaborative; they will need portable skillsets, a solid CV with relevant work experience and new media literacy.
All this, plus they will need to be open-minded, to have a successful career in a job market that will be dominated by casual employment and short-term contracts.
It’ s also likely they’ ll work in a‘ bleisure’( business + leisure) environment – where their workplace may even be fitted with napping pods. And some parents may buy their children businesses for them to run.
These predictions were delivered by Rob Lawrence, founder of education market research company Prospect, to an audience of tertiary education professionals at the Australian International Education Conference.
Lawrence’ s statements are based on interviews he conducted with 238 employers from Australia, Asia, the US, and Europe, and with 594 final-year university students from the same locations.
Lawrence also said international education would continue to boom, as many parents will want to enrol children overseas so they gain all of the attributes mentioned above.
“ More and more students from around the world will look to a qualification from a foreign provider as a means of achieving individual differentiation,” Lawrence told the audience.“ Estimates vary but it would be reasonable to state that [ about ] 6 million families today are considering an education abroad for their children.
“ These students are focused on academic outcomes today in a world shaped by social media, and there are numerous career and aspirational factors to take into consideration, often based around generational values – a generation which is not necessarily understood,” he continued.“ There is the opportunity to become immersed with a different culture, society and environment through education. There’ s the opportunity to build new networks, experience a different lifestyle, access different working environments, gain independence, enjoy a sense of adventure, contribute and acquire new skills and competencies; again, all through education. All values [ that ] millennials share around the world. Many employers, such as Unilever, are embracing [ these ] through their graduate recruitment campaigns. There is already a lot of evidence to demonstrate that students are acquiring multiple levels of qualifications in order to be differentiated.”
Lawrence said education providers would need to provide graduates with these attributes in order to stay relevant. He also says a healthy VET sector is needed.
“ Many of the employers said to us that there are imbalances between the higher-education qualifications in many countries and the actual requirements of the market,” Lawrence said.“ Consequently, many concerns were raised that by 2025 there will, in fact, be too many graduates and inadequate provision of people with up-to-date vocational and technical skills for labour-market conditions.”
As for universities, Lawrence cited a long list of what they’ ll need to do to adjust to market demands.
“ In order to absorb increased demand, providers will need to invest in greater pedagogical diversity. They will need to embrace technology,” Lawrence said.“ They’ ll need to understand people. They’ ll need to [ expand ] capacity. They’ ll need to increase their current resources. They’ ll need to break away from traditional structures through extended teaching cycles and alternative delivery platforms. Providers will need to extend the breadth and depth of content, but not lose touch with the fact that for many years to come a large proportion of students will hail from countries that do not encourage independent learning, and that’ s going to create major fractions, potentially, in the workplace.
“ According to many of the opinion leaders we interviewed, there will be a growing need for even more specialised competencies and skills, not necessarily obtained through a tertiary qualification, which takes too long, but through such activities as intensive short courses, professional development, and ongoing online training. This is all reflected in future demand. There is a growing interest in nano-courses, which do not necessarily need to be accredited but which contribute to applied knowledge, and applied knowledge is an important term now. This acquisition of knowledge will become ongoing.” ■
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