Future-ready skills
Support learners in acquiring transversal skills, productivity, and higher-level technical skills and prepare them to be active participants in the community for employment and entrepreneurship
What does the future look like?
The world is rapidly changing. Advances in technology are creating new knowledge, new experiences, and new opportunities. Educational systems are challenged with moving learning forward without leaving learners behind.
Civilization is now in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is the current and developing environment in which disruptive technologies and trends such as the internet of things (IoT), robotics, virtual reality (VR), and artificial intelligence (AI) are changing the way we live and work.
"While the Fourth Industrial Revolution is in many ways coming right on the heels of the digital revolution, it will continue to evolve as new technologies develop and mature.” — Robert D. Atkinson, President of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
The knowledge economy
The fourth industrial revolution has ushered in a knowledge economy, which is characterized by how quickly one learns, un-learns, and relearns and understanding that the ability to learn is more important than what one already knows.
To be successful in a knowledge economy, learners need to acquire an innovator’s mindset: that the opposite of success isn’t failure, rather, failure is everything that comes before success.
Think about the ways in which our current educational system supports a knowledge economy.
One reason for a knowledge economy is the move towards a greater digital economy. Countries/regions in the Middle East see this as a huge boost that will help diversify away from commodity-based economies such as that of Saudi Arabia and other hydrocarbon-reliant countries/regions. Africa, too, is willing to step up and adopt digital economic models. The World Bank hopes that every business and government will be digitally-led by 2030. Part of the World Bank's Digital Economy in Africa initiative includes equipping all 15-year-olds with “basic digital competencies” as well as pushing 100,000 graduates into advanced digital skills programs annually. Within the next two decades, 90% of jobs worldwide will require at least some degree of digital proficiency.
Throughout the Middle East and Africa, there’s an emphasis on preparing young people for future jobs. As such, it’s up to educators to improve their own digital literacy, ensuring they have the right skills to impart digital literacy to their learners. Otherwise, learners’ knowledge will not be able to keep up with the oncoming economic realities.
Every moment in class is an opportunity to excite a lifetime of discovery. A STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) approach to learning helps educators bring problem-solving skills to life in ways that support each learner to reach their potential and prepare them for school, work, and life.
The jobs of the future are not yet defined; this means that we must prepare learners with the skills they need—technical and non-technical—for today and tomorrow. Creativity, collaboration, and computational thinking are a few of the skills that learners develop while engaged in technology skills development and curriculum. Integrating more interdisciplinary approaches to learning and including a platform of social and emotional skills opens new paths of discovery for learners and helps them become future scientists, programmers, artists, and architects as well as new roles they will craft for themselves.
Why STEM?
As the demand for STEM jobs increases, so will expectations for today's learners to be ready for those jobs. Yet, only 60% of secondary schools worldwide teach computer science. This skills gap sits against the backdrop of incredible transformation and change. Today’s primary learners are likely to study university courses that do not yet exist and work in roles not yet created. They will be tasked with solving the most complex environmental, social, and economic issues of any generation in history. The time to start transforming teaching and learning is now.
Future-ready is life-ready
Skills in technology and science are increasingly critical for learners. These skills, combined with non-technical competencies such as social and emotional learning, equip learners with a well-rounded and diverse set of experiences to thrive in tomorrow's economy.
Interdisciplinary learning
By studying multiple academic concepts together, learners develop the skills to bring creative solutions to all kinds of real-world problems.
Student-centered approaches
See learners light up when they’re inspired by creative content that helps them learn to solve problems. By working together with educators, learners gain confidence in critical thinking skills, leading to long-term success in school and throughout life.
Microsoft tools aimed at improving STEM and Computer Science programs in school
MakeCode
Minecraft: Education Edition
Azure
Microsoft Imagine Academy
Hacking STEM
Microsoft Learn for students and educators
Microsoft launched a new collection of curated content for students including learning paths from leading universities and content that inspires and challenges learners to build with social impact and responsibility in mind. For educators, there’s Microsoft ready-to-teach curriculum and teaching materials aligned with industry-recognized Microsoft certifications. These certifications augment a learner’s existing degree path and validate the skills needed to be successful across a variety of technical careers.
With your leadership team, review ISTE's standards for computational thinking. Discuss how the ISTE Standards and the Microsoft resources outlined in this module align with your organization's mission and vision. Together, create a concrete, sequential plan for integrating the resources into professional development opportunities for staff.
- What support and or resources do you need to make the plan you created with your leadership team a reality?
- How might you remove existing barriers?
- How might Microsoft help?