The road ahead part 2
In a globalized world where technology is becoming the key driver to many things, successful countries will be those who invest in technology education. Since technology changes quickly, it is important to recognize that traditional way of educate students is NOT effective anymore and must change to lifelong learning. This educational model requires people to continue to learn throughout their entire lives. In addition, this lifelong learning is not just for students but everybody to continuously learning in a constantly changing world. This will require a broadening of the responsibility for learning to every citizens, old and young, and they must understand that knowledge and skills are essential for their own livelihoods.
Today every countries are facing a shortage of skilled workers even there are high number of unemployed workers. The simple reason for the high number of unemployment is the whole world is changing faster than many people can react. Many people do not have the needed skills, many people do not know what to do, and many workers find that their skills are no longer needed. The reason for shortage of skilled people is similar. As the whole world is changing faster than schools can produce enough skilled people to meet the demands. Today no single nation can produce enough knowledge workers to meet what their industry really needs. But the problem is growing more critical in developed nations as many of their skilled workers are eligible to retire, and insufficient numbers of capable workers are being prepared to replace them. It is important emphasize the word “capable” because these countries face a “skills shortage”, not a “labor shortage”.
Currently in many developing nations, most industries are being automated, assembly lines are being operated by machines, office works are computerized, workflows are being controlled by software programs, labor works are NO longer needed. Many manufacturing facilities are outsourced to developing countries where there are plenty of labor workers. However, this is only a “temporary solution” as industries are replacing their old “manual machines” with automated ones. Once their factories are fully automated by machines, once their offices works are fully under controlled, the manufacturing outsourcing trends will stop. Suddenly many developing countries who are enjoying the benefit of having manufacturing capacity with manual labors will face an uncertain future. They will have to solve a large unemployed labor workers as their manufactures are being shut down. This will create a significant impact on social and economic as they will be pulled further into debt, poverty and political unstable.
Most jobs in the near future will require at least some level of technical knowledge, analytic aptitude, an ability to communicate and work in teams with a global perspective. Workers must also have desire to learn new ways of thinking and doing. To produce this new knowledge worker, broad-based education reform is needed. It will require unprecedented commitment from governments, citizens, educators, parents, and businesses to ensure that they are prepared to address this urgent needs. Education must be a key priority over everything else for the long term benefits. It will require government to issue policies, fund education reform and monitor this activity as an urgency. It will require educators to accept the reform process, not impede it to protect their own status. It will require business to start large scale modernization to apply technology to the way they operate. Every businesses will need global market knowledge, NOT local market as business in the future will be more a global perspective. It is critical for local industry to establish a strong links with their education systems. The goals of this is to ensure that all students can acquire new knowledge, skills, to enhance their employability, problem-solving abilities, and productivity.
With the industrial world, there is a dividing lines between the “Rich” and the “Poor”. In the new coming knowledge world, the world will be divided between the “Educated” and the “Uneducated”. That is why with globalization, improving education is critical to the future of a country and its competitiveness. The process of change must start with the most effective education reform strategy and the partnerships between industry and academia, improved teaching methods, that develop the critical knowledge and skills that students need for their lives. Education improvement must be considered as an economic investments for the growth and prosperity of a nation. With a focus on integrated, active, and lifelong learning approach, people can accelerate their learning from novice to expert within a short time, and equip themselves to ready for many challenges ahead.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
