The 100-year career
That which makes us human…
Strong social skills will be the key to career success as demand for uniquely human skills rises. Those forecast to be in higher future demand include:
Learning strategies
Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
Psychology
Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Instructing
Teaching others how to do something.
Social perceptiveness
Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
Sociology and anthropology
Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures and their history and origins.
Move beyond generic descriptions of “21st century skills”
Education systems will need to support better understanding, teaching practice, and assessment of the granular skills that will be in greater demand. Find a glossary of future skills here.
Follow one learner on her journey through a century of learning and earning.
0: Meet baby Kira
Kira, along with other individuals born today, has a high likelihood of living to be 100 in the coming decades, and as old as 150. This also suggests a much longer working life lasting well into her hundreds, according to researchers.
A lifetime of learning
"A child born today in the USA has a 50:50 chance of reaching 104. Some will live much longer."
— David Sinclair, Professor, Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School
Learning strategies - Kira has learned her ABCs, and now begins to associate letters with words on a page and string together sentences.
Social perceptiveness - She knows her friend Sam gets upset when he doesn’t have his blanket at nap time, and can feel his pain — Kira misses her teddy, Roxie, too.
Adapt faster to the changing needs of the labor market
The pace of change will continue to accelerate. Education systems developed 20–30 years ago will actually need to plan for a future 20–30 years away.
15–20: Starts off her career
Occupations can be re-designed to pair uniquely human skills with the productivity gains from technology to boost demand for jobs. How we balance those skills with technology productivity will chart the course of our workforce.
Kira
Age: 19
Job: Content curation specialist
Sector: Education
The real job of a librarian of the future is uniquely human — it’s making meaning out of facts.
As a content curation specialist, Kira is responsible for facilitating knowledge creation by providing access, managing contributions, and the maintenance of vast repositories of digital data for present and future use. She organizes large quantities of multimedia data through analysis, tags, and reports for specific content within those datasets while ensuring quality and providing feedback for the lifecycle of digital assets. Her goal is to mitigate digital obsolescence, keeping the information accessible to users indefinitely.
Instructing - Kira interacts with customers on a daily basis, who expect her to provide them with the right information. To help them find what they are looking for, she must listen closely.
Learning strategies - Evolving technology has led to a quickly growing flow of new data sets that Kira must continually evolve and adapt to, including 3-D holograms that bring concepts to life and transport users to the source. This requires agility and coordination.
Education, library, and training
Analysis of the data predicts a high 73.04% chance of these workers experiencing growth.1
30: Always learning
Future learners like Kira need to accumulate deep knowledge that can only come from continuous learning, as well as skills building. This diverges from a common assumption that a college degree is THE only path to a career...when there are other opportunities like apprenticeships, boot camps, and certifications.
"You need the knowledge so you can build on it to know the next thing."
– Amar Kumar, SVP, Product & Portfolio Management
Pearson Online & Blended Learning
Learning strategies - Digital tools — many of which are free or low cost — empower Kira to better understand her assets and enhance them.
Psychology - By understanding the capabilities and limitations of using technology, Kira is able to ensure online safety, maximize effectiveness, and bring humans to the top of our capabilities.
Reality check
“Career engagement is happening in the form of digital simulations, live challenges, and remote internships that develop and, in some cases, assess learners’ skills in real time and under real-world conditions.” 2
Instructing - Learning is more geared towards a group share/peer-to-peer learning environment. Kira serves as a subject matter expert, and is highly involved in sharing her experiences and knowledge gained as a librarian with her virtual class.
Social perceptiveness - There are a new set of norms and values that have been established for the online universe. As information and individuals become even more transparent, Kira must be respectful of the way in which she interacts with other humans.
A brief insight
“To impart the skills that will matter most in the workplaces of the future, teaching and learning must fundamentally shift from a paradigm of knowledge transfer to one of collaborative insight; from auditorium to laboratory." 2
Sociology and anthropology - Kira won’t be walking the dusty halls in an old building filled with books. She’ll be leveraging tech to process hundreds of millions of data points while using her own humanity to pinpoint a specific insight, and those collective insights will be what drives society’s progress.
Learning strategies - Kira leverages AI in her daily tasks. By using AI to take on more routine functions like scheduling and project management, it’s given her a chance to explore new growth opportunities and update her skillset through self-guided learning .
Surprised by this finding?
Libraries, traditionally conceived, have been going through massive transformations, as the way we create, share, and store information has evolved. We’ll still need people, librarians, to help us navigate information both old and new. But like many occupations, the skills profile of a librarian is likely to shift substantially in the years ahead.
75–90: This is virtually reality
Although there will likely always be some demand for traditional brick-and-mortar experiences, learners expect accelerated and flexible pathways. Kira takes her education into the virtual realm for holographic training and certifications in data science and analytics, as technology grows to be an ever bigger part of her new career as an immersive experience director.
Kira
Age: 77
Job: Immersive experience director
Sector: Education
Supporting a lifetime of learning
After her latest round of schooling, Kira was convinced that some of the most exciting developments in culture lay in the ongoing evolution of digital technology. She joined an education company which she believed was a natural home for her skills. Immersive experience technologies provided a way to teach complex concepts visually and motivate users who otherwise struggled with traditional learning methods.
Instructing - Kira holds sessions with career learners to understand their desires for continuous learning.
Psychology - She helps others understand their own personal learning style and apply it to their ongoing education.
Agility is critical for growth
As the need for certain competencies shift in an increasingly changeable labor market, learners can earn in-demand credentials quickly to build and demonstrate new skills, making new combinations of working and learning possible.
Learning strategies - Kira will need to think, work, and learn collaboratively, teaching and persuading those around her as they solve novel problems.
Social perceptiveness - As Kira moves through work and learning environments that are defined by collaboration and creation, being able to persevere, lead, listen, and work with others will be critical.
Develop pedagogies to support dynamic knowledge and skill development
Technology will continue to disrupt the workplace, forcing employers to redesign occupations over and over as automation changes skill and knowledge requirements. Educational institutions will need to provide support to educators as they are asked to teach these new skills. This could require significant retooling of teacher education or faculty incentives in educational institutions.
Psychology - As digital career exposure, engagement, and experience opportunities continue to grow, Kira takes care to not underestimate the value of in-person interactions and relationship building.
Sociology and anthropology - As our society becomes even more inclusive and celebratory of diverse points of view, backgrounds, and experiences, Kira is responsible for fostering an environment that provides a sense of belonging.
Spark curiosity
“No matter how great our education and training systems become, if people aren’t curious about learning new skills, the future of work won’t happen. [We] must encourage people to experiment, take risks and learn from new ideas and technologies.” 3
Interested in learning more?
For more information on the research, findings, and implications of the Future of Skills, please visit: futureskills.pearson.com
Sources
1 Future of Skills, Pearson, Nesta, Oxford Martin School
2 Demand Driven Education, Pearson
3 It’s time to revamp old-school approaches to education and training for the new world of work, Cognizant