Future Opportunities

In the past few years, technology has advanced significantly, and soon robots and automation software will do most of the work people now do. According to a report from The World Economic Forum, about five million jobs will be lost by 2020 and that the number will keep growing as more companies will use robots instead of people.

Today Information Technology has changed many businesses, and the impact will continue in the future. According to the report, many traditional jobs will be eliminated, and that will put a major burden on developing countries. However, there will be many new jobs, different types of jobs will be created. There will be a significant change in the way companies do business as the nature of work is changing due to automation, and there is high demand for new skills that could help people thrive in this new global economy.

According to the report, technology skills will be in high demand in the next fifty years. As these jobs will grow by 22% between now and 2025, there will not be enough workers to fill them and the shortage will be severe. The report warned that demand will not be in some countries but globally because technology will dominate every country and every business. That was the reason President Obama ordered all U.S. public schools from kindergarten to high-school to teach science and technology, especially computing technology and programming to make sure when U.S. children grow up, they will have the sufficient skills to meet market demand. He announced the goal of adding 100,000 new STEM teachers (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) in public schools over the next ten years. Germany and Scandinavia countries have taught STEM in their public schools in the past few years. This year, Japan, S. Korea, and Singapore also announced that they are changing their education curricula to focus more on Science and Technology.

Even when many countries are moving forward in their STEM education, some countries are still taking the attitude of “Wait and See.” According to a global study, the change toward Science and Technology will require a significant amount of efforts and re-training of teachers, which many educators do not like. A teacher explained: “I have been teaching public school for many years, and will retire soon, asking me to go back to school and learn technology is impossible.” Another high-level educator voiced his opinion: “It is easy to talk about changing curricula to science and technology, but it requires a lot of money and cannot happen overnight. It may take several years or even a decade.” The study concluded” “The resistance to change from public educators is the strongest force against the teaching of science and technology today.”

Research on the teaching of science and technology in college also found that when students go to college, many select STEM fields (18.5%). However, only 6.8% completed their study in STEM as many changed their mind and switched to other fields. Why there was such a large disparity between initial selection and final outcomes? The research found that many students did not have a good foundation in science when entering college. Many were optimistic, but when they got low grades in some technology courses, they became disappointed and switched to other easier fields. The research concluded: “ It is NOT that students do not like science and technology, or do not know about the good job opportunities. The problems are the lack of high school preparation and the current traditional method of teaching.”

There is evidence that traditional lecturing method is not suitable for Science and Technology Education. Science and technology training require students to practice what they learned and apply them to solve problems and develop skills. Students will not learn much if they just listen to a lecture but they must engage in class activities. When students are engaged in the classroom; they learn more. Classroom discussion is one of the most common methods for actively engaging students. Another important aspect is as technology changes fast, students need to develop lifelong learning skills and become people who are always learning new things to keep up. Therefore, they must change the way they learn, as it is impossible to memorize everything. Students need to develop new learning skills to keep up with the pace of change. They need to develop the ability to process a lot of information that they saw happening each day and make sense out of it. As the amount of information continue to increases, students must learn how to process them quickly and not overwhelmed by them, and that is why lecturing and memorizing will never work.

Besides the knowledge and skills in technology, students must also understand how businesses, especially global businesses, work. Even if they are working in a small company or small country, they must understand how the global business operates and how technology is changing the nature of works. That means they will have to read more, research more, and continue to learn more to take advantage of the new opportunities in their lives.

Sources

  • Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University

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