Preparing for the Future essay series
How do you prepare young people for a rapidly changing future?
We posed this question to a diverse range of people – from senior managers to full-time students – and their responses were equally diverse. However, they agreed on one thing: the future workplace is going to look very different to the way it does today.
We'll publish their responses over the next 9 weeks – we hope you'll find them interesting and inspiring.
We invite you to leave your comments on any of the articles, or suggest a topic for us to cover in the future.
Just do it! Remembering the thrill of making and doing
“We live in a lop-sided educational culture, which has taken the valuable skills of thinking and writing and turned them into the only officially-esteemed game in town,” argues Guy Claxton.
Risk-taking is the way forward
"One of the biggest ways we can improve skills for the future is by helping schools to develop risktaking attitudes in their students," says Donna Miller.
Thinking like an entrepreneur
"Broad skills acquisition is imperative if the UK is going to continue to be competitive and a leader in innovation on the global stage," says Claire O'Halloran.
The confidence to succeed in the future
"I don’t feel that school is necessarily helping with my social development or confidence. Developing skills, such as confidence, is as important as qualifications and early careers guidance," says Leila Thompson.
The future is a shared responsibility
"It is the responsibility of both employers and young people to prepare for the future workplace," says Karen Halford
A new focus for the curriculum
"Students need to get into a learning frame of mind by questioning what they encounter," says Fellow at the National Institute for Careers Education and Counselling, Bill Law.
Making Connections
If we are to prepare people for the future, we have to prepare them to look at information in a way that helps them to make connections between subjects and disciplines, says entrepreneur Ben Way.
Preparing for the long-term by embracing the short-term
The future world of work will be very different from today, so it's important that we equip young people with a diverse skill set, so the UK can keep up with the rest of the world, says Phil Croft.
A generation of mentees
Great leaders have great mentors. Richard Branson attributes Virgin Atlantic's success to his business mentor and aviation expert Sir Freddie Laker. Dr Martin Luther King Jr praised Benjamin Elijah Mays as his spiritual mentor.
A lifetime of questing and questioning
With the shelf-life of professional knowledge falling, it is clear that the most important skill will be the capacity to abandon old skills and embrace new ones, says Richard Reeves. Learning, rather than being taught, is the future.
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