The future of our kids

Cycles of life: now and the future

It is no shock to us to say that history repeats itself. Patterns and cycles occur regularly in life.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Australia was the most affluent country in the western world. The workforce was 90% self-employed while only 10% worked for others who owned their own business. At the turn of the twenty-first century this had completely flipped and 90% of the Australian workforce worked for other people and 10% were self-employed.

What are the forecasts ahead for our youth?

Futurists know the world our youth are growing up into is so different from the life we are living now in the twenty-first century. It’s predicted that 40% of our current 5 years olds will need to be self-employed by the time they turn 25 to have any comfortable form of income.

The school system has been based on the premise of creating employees, i.e. people who turn up on time, do the tasks they have been assigned to do, don’t question the status quo, become a specialist, memorise content and clock out at the end of the day. But these skills and characteristics are not ideal in the self employed business world.

Preparing our youth for the future

So what is it that our youth today need to address this challenge?

They will require the following skills and abilities:

• Innovation
• Creativity
• The ability to problem solve
• Critical thinking
• Understand others and their needs
• Be able to promote
• Design
• Listen
• Focus
• Work independently, and in teams
• Self motivation
• Have flexibility
• Adaptability
• Digital literacy
• And so much more…

The future is a challenge

Challenging times indeed ahead but times that will create great opportunities for the bold and daring.

In my opinion, our global education system in westernised countries is, long overdue for an overhaul. You have to wonder why so many of the world’s greatest innovators did not complete their college years but went out boldly to achieve success with ideas that have changed the world. People like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson, Ted Turner, Ellen DeGeneres, Steve Jobs and Henry Ford to name a few.

Future modelling and education

And so how will our future innovators develop and acquire the necessary skills and abilities to start new careers and who then is going to model and teach them these skills? Clearly, educational institutions need to capture the attention of the young budding entrepreneurs in a variety of ways. They need to develop specific,  educational programs about entrepreneurship. They need to call on successful business people with experience and a willingness and desire to share their wealth of knowledge and experience with young people today to mentor and show them how to achieve success.