Preparing Graduates for the 21st Century
Abstract
Frey and Osborne [4] provide a forecast of what will happen to employment in the 21st century with the advent of new technologies, specifically the effects of computerization on job markets. While computers started to disrupt the job market many decades ago with what Schumpeter denominated “creative destruction”, the speed of disruption will be much higher and the effects of creative job destruction much more dramatic in the 4th industrial revolution. While formerly economic growth meant higher levels of employment, nowadays due to computerization it is possible to have a “jobless growth”. The creative disruption of technology in the 21st century will have effects that go well beyond business: As labor markets change so do the set of skills that graduates have to possess to transition to the business world. The aim of this paper is, first, to present the skills that, according to business executives and scholars will be required by employers in the era of the 4th industrial revolution; second, to discuss the implications for education, specifically for higher education, and how programs will have to be modified so that the skills obtained by graduates’ match those demanded by the labor market.
Authors: Josefina Bengoechea, Alex Bell
Published in: Canada International Conference on Education, 2022
- Date of Conference: 21-23 June, 2022
- DOI: 10.20533/CICE.2022.0041
- Electronic ISBN: 978-1-913572-49-5
- Conference Location: Virtual (Mississauga, Canada)