Tomorrow’s skills: Teachers watch-out!

IDC published a study: ”

“Skills Requirements for Tomorrow’s Best Jobs”.

I discovered it – gratefully – through @leitenmu and a Microsoft link: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/download/presskits/education/docs/idc_101513.pdf

About 15 years ago, when it also became part of my job to select new hires from applicants and lead them towards becoming a valuable team-oriented fun-loving contributor to projects and tasks, I had to painfully admit that most of what universities and high schools had trained those applicants, wasn’t precisely what we sought to add to our teams.

Those who were the quickest to learn and adopt, eventually had the greatest success in their ongoing careers (and where the greatest fun to work with).

Now, what IDC predicts in their study is an increased need for what they call CIP-skills – communication, integration and presentation. That’s not that different from what I had the honour to already experience a decade ago. As an appetizer to the whole, just have a look to that figure:

But while the whole study presents a highly interesting, thought-provoking outlook to what teaching institutions today need to focus on in order to provide the skills needed for tomorrow, I’d like to seriously ask: How can a school system stuck within 30-or-more year old paradigms ever gain even the faintest ability to educate what their students will need for their jobs?