Future Amp appoints national Youth Advisory Board to lead the way.
“Every generation must chisel its own destiny in its own way.” - Abhijit Naskar
As we surf the economic, social and emotional waves of the global virus that took us all by surprise, some of us are beginning to look up from where we are to look ahead, and cobble together plans and maps for the VUCA road over the horizon as we try and problem solve our way out of a pandemic.
While no-one can predict or forecast what work, education, life and travel will look like well beyond the final blip of the coronavirus curve, what is certain is that we have entered a new era as we all shape-shift and upskill to keep pace with rapid step changes in the way we all learn, teach, transit, communicate and cohabitate.
Our team at Future Amp have been particularly interested in watching Generation Z and the Alphas after them who’ve been hauled - masked and unasked - through this cataclysmic shift, and now face uncertain futures in Australia with record unemployment, an education sector clambering to reinvent itself, wide-scale industry disruption and a $1 trillion debt as the budget continues to blow out fighting the coronavirus.
So in order to better understand what the world looks like from their unique vantage point - and given our company mission is to build scalable and equitable solutions to Next Gen problems - we've recently assembled a Future Amp Youth Advisory Board of completely outstanding humans aged 16-25, so they can lead the way forward.
Here are just some of the questions we’ve been listening to them ask:
1. What is the point of formal and legacy education models when the real knowledge I need is just a click away?
2. Do I even need to go to university when I can ‘stack’ my learning with a mix of microcredentials and on-the-job training?
3. I don’t even know what jobs will exist, so how can I plan my future career and study pathways?
4. I keep being told I need to build employability skills but I can't even get work experience right now.
5. Um, is the world actually going to be ok?
The Next Gen have every reason and right to ask these big questions, as they confront the task of chiselling their destinies and shaping - or saving - the planet in their own way.
Their world (and world view) is vastly different to the one their parents - and today’s leaders - were raised in. Their problems are both inherited, and emerging. Education is fracturing into stackable degrees. The planet is heating. Racial tensions are rising. Debt is mounting. Work is transforming. Jobs are changing. The Social Dilemma is real. The Singularity is imminent. The only certainty is that uncertainty is rife.
In fact, a Dell Technologies report predicts that 85% of jobs in 2030 that Generation Z and Alpha will step into have not even been invented yet. And while Australia sees a looming job market and global growth sector skills shortage, Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s newly announced JobMaker program hinges on a "skills-led COVID-19 economic recovery" but has scant detail on what upskilling, re-skilling and rebuilding a national 21st century workforce and education system actually looks like.
At Future Amp, we believe every young person - no matter their born circumstance - deserves to have access to knowledge, career pathway choices and skill-building opportunities to give them the best chance of thriving in this newly complex, interconnected, ever-changing - and truly globalised - world.
To do that, they will require the skills that are proving essential to navigate effectively through this pandemic, and the new world of work: adaptability, creativity, resilience, communication, digital literacy, empathy, emotional intelligence, intercultural competency, and the ability to work across demographic, cultural and geographic lines of difference to harness the power of the global collective through distributed teamwork.
Therefore, it is incumbent upon as all to leverage the diverse human talents across every age and every stage.
Anything industries, educators, individuals and leaders can do to mentor, upskill, teach, learn from, employ, connect with and build bridges between the Next Gen and Industry 5.0 will help us ALL better navigate and recalibrate the education, workforce, societal and technological systems of the VUCA world we all now find ourselves in.
As Alan Kay said, the best way to predict the future is to invent it. But to do that we need to unlearn the old ways and lean in to learn from the Next Gen as they build the new.
They will be the future architects, authors and assemblers of this age.
Let’s listen. And let them lead the way.
Future Amp is a global, industry-backed career education and employability skills platform connecting today's students with tomorrow's world of work. Future Amp has just exited the Amazon Web Services and David Gonski-chaired Future Minds Accelerator.
To learn more about our national platform launch, bringing Future Amp to your school or educational institution or partnering with us, contact our team.
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