VC’s corner
campusreview.com.au
Partners in disruption
RMIT is teaming up with disruptive
industry leaders to prepare
students for a brave new future.
By Helen Souness
R
MIT University recently held a special
event to celebrate its 131st birthday,
entitled Will Robots Eat our Jobs?
The event featured Vice-Chancellor Martin
Bean and a panel of experts discussing
what the future of jobs might be in a world
where delivery drones, hyperloops, virtual
reality, driverless cars, 3D printed homes
and space tourism may become the norm.
It was no surprise to me that the event
was a packed house. While a brave new
world beckons, many people find their
20
excitement tempered by anxiety about the
future, particularly as they try to come to
grips with how technology is changing the
world of work, not just for them but for
their kids and grandkids.
A report published this year by the
Foundation for Young Australians as part of
its New Work Order research series found
that 65 per cent of children in primary
school today will work in jobs that don’t
yet exist. That means we need to develop
students who can to adapt and thrive in a
world where change is constant, and who
are equipped with the skills to win these
jobs that we can’t yet even envision.
There’s also a clear gender issue,
highlighted in the World Economic
Forum report on the Industry Gender
Gap: Women and Work in the Fourth
Industrial Revolution, which notes that if
the transformation of the labour market
towards new and emerging roles in
computer and tech fields continues to
outpace the rate at which women are
entering those STEM areas, women are
at risk of losing out on tomorrow’s top
job opportunities.
Knowing that governments and industries
around the world are focused on meeting
future work needs by building STEM skills,
it is concerning that women tend to be
under-represented in STEM education
and training in most countries, including
Australia (Marginson, et al, 2013).
At RMIT we firmly believe that universities
must take the lead on upskilling and
reskilling Australians for the modern, digital
workplace and constantly reassess how
we can deliver greater value to students
and society.
As a place of learning, it’s incumbent
on us – as it always has been – to deeply
understand the world we are all adapting
to, and to ensure we provide access
to relevant education, new options for
learning and quality paths for employment
for generations to come.
It’s an exciting, challenging and infinitely
rewarding space to be in, and we are
continuing to flex and evolve.
Our view is that the best way to stay
ahead of the changing world of work is
to innovate in collaboration with industry
leaders.