Ready for Anything. Suzette Lovely

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СКАЧАТЬ to India are simply untrue (Paquette, 2017). Also untrue are stories that it’s only a matter of time before U.S. workers are replaced by robots. While organizations are increasingly using technology to automate existing processes, the majority is upgrading structures to maximize the value of both humans and machines (Agarwal, Bersin, Lahiri, Schwartz, & Volini, 2018). The goal is to complement what people do, not replace them.

      As we think about preparing students for the workforce of tomorrow, we need to consider the skills and dispositions that will guarantee a symbiotic relationship among employees, machines, and consumers. Today’s workforce is a dynamic ecosystem, where employee-employer relationships are redefined in a variegated labor market (Agarwal et al., 2018). So, let’s take a look at the changing skills and dispositions needed for the white-collar, blue-collar, camouflage-collar, and no-collar occupations of the future.

      White-Collar Workers

      Our doctors, lawyers, engineers, pilots, programmers, bankers, and teachers must be nimble and flexible. In these fields, thinking and learning are constant since information changes so quickly. Rather than spending time looking for more efficient ways to do old work, employers ask their white-collar workers to innovate and invent entirely new ways to do the work (Friedman & Mandelbaum, 2011).

      Kaiser, the largest health care system in the U.S., is one of many companies leading the way in reimagining white-collar work. Its coordinated, connected, and convenient patient care model allows people to see their doctor, get an X-ray, have blood drawn, and pick up a prescription all in the same building (Levine, 2017).

      When Kaiser opens its first school of medicine in 2020, students will see patients and interact with families in their very first year. One of only a handful of medical schools in America not connected to a university, the California-based provider has also decided to waive tuition for every student in its first five graduating classes. Using a case-based curriculum, medical students will be assigned to study groups and teams of specialists, primary care doctors, nurses, and therapists. In these “integrated clerkships” there is no separation of science and application as students learn it, see it, and practice doing it. Kaiser’s goal is to ensure physicians-in-the-making become aggressive champions for their patients in every field of medicine—no matter where they make their careers (Goodnough, 2019).

      Blue-Collar Workers

      Our machinists, mechanics, production line workers, farmers, miners, and transportation workers must possess a clear understanding of how their jobs add value wherever they are in the company chain. A sense of presence and expertise in human interaction is necessary for blue-collar workers to share their ideas for making a product better. In the latter part of the 20th century, workers in these trades generally performed manual tasks that called for limited knowledge or critical thinking. Today’s blue-collar workers, however, are expected to function more like “technical careerists” than cogs on an assembly line where conveyer belts dictate the momentum (Wilke, 2019, p. 3).

      One company that has managed to transform its production model is American conglomerate DuPont. Founded in 1802 as a gunpowder mill, DuPont is one of the most sustained industries in the world. With a vast portfolio of products including Nylon, Teflon, Mylar, Lycra, and Kevlar, the company has revamped its employee development programs to reflect changing needs (Ponzo, 2013). In the past, employees learned a set of tasks and repeated those tasks over and over again. Today, engineers and line operators work side by side to solve problems, improve production time, and make decisions together. Systemwide operations software allows employees at any plant to suggest ways to enhance equipment, boost manufacturing processes, and improve technology. The idea is for every employee to add value, no matter where they fall in the company chain. DuPont’s determination to address the blue-collar image gap is reflected in the time leaders spend creating an environment where everyone brings their best thinking to work (Ponzo, 2013).

      Camouflage-Collar Workers

      Engagements in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other remote parts of the world have required new training for our military. During the 20th century, the primary mission of the U.S. armed forces was to deter aggression and re-establish order in a particular region. However, the threats America faces today are decentralized, networked, and syndicated (Friedman & Mandelbaum, 2011). The enemy is no longer a specific country. Instead, some of the greatest hostility comes from loosely-coupled ideologies spread across continents. To that end, our camouflage-collars need a wide range of capabilities, including the ability to adapt to the ever-changing technology that opponents use.

      Students who join the military will need to visualize, understand, and decide without necessarily waiting for base commanders to convey every order. In many situations, officers and enlisted personnel respond to unpredictable encounters as they unfold. Every branch of the service is seeking people who understand the complex nature of the environments in which they work along with the courage to offer respectful and candid feedback to superiors (Erdmann, 2013).

      Another distinction for the camouflage-collar workforce is the expanding role troops now play in post-conflict stabilization campaigns. Described as soft power tasks, deployed personnel—including our National Guard and reservists—need a different skill set to win a war than they need to keep the peace. Reflections on post-conflict operations in Haiti, Somalia, and the Middle East have placed greater emphasis on cultural and political awareness. Military-backed reconstruction efforts require strong interagency collaboration, cohesion in setting priorities, sophisticated leadership, and a well-coordinated ground game (Chong, 2015).

      No-Collar Workers

      No-collar workers can do anything anyone wants, anytime, anywhere, at any pace. Speechwriters, software developers, web designers, marketing specialists, and Uber drivers build networks through experience, contacts, and a personal brand. They’re able to start work at midnight, noon, or after dropping the kids at school. In the United States, 40 percent of the workforce is currently employed in “alternative work arrangements” (Agarwal et al., 2018). Globally this number has surpassed 77 million, with collective earnings exceeding one trillion dollars (Pofeldt, 2016). Many CEOs tell their teams, “I don’t care where the work gets done or who does it, just get it done.”

      An ever-evolving job market makes it hard to gauge what type of workers will be necessary twenty years from now or how to strategically manage these workers. Moreover, students are entering an economy where temporary and short-term engagements have become the norm (Agarwal et al., 2018). As a general rule, education for employment must move away from routine, impersonal tasks to more personal, creative tasks that only people can do well. For graduates to function well in this “any collar” environment, they’ll need more than glowing test scores and impressive GPAs. No matter what industry or profession students pursue, our responsibility as educators is to ensure they’re ready.

Future-Ready Teaching and Learning

      Effective 21st century teaching and learning must reflect what’s happening technologically, socially, economically, and globally. When education lags behind other advancements, students are unprepared for the world ahead. Additionally, inequality grows among the population, as the “haves” secure better employment opportunities while the “have-nots” hold little hope of improving their status or circumstances. As a result, both individuals and society suffer in the form of unemployment, underemployment, income gaps, personal stress, and social unrest (Fadel et al., 2015).

      

PERSPECTIVES FROM THE FIELD

      “We can’t educate today’s students for tomorrow’s world with yesterday’s schools.”

      —Damian LaCroix, Wisconsin superintendent (Marx, 2014, p. 4)

      As we consider the values of schooling СКАЧАТЬ