Page 6 - KZN Business Sense 7.3 Hameed Noormahomed-EBOOK

It’s adapt or die for education

as technology forges ahead

Curriculum reform needed to match the skills revolution Professor

Ahmed Shaikh

HIGHER education institutions have long been considered By just about any measure, the pace of decay of knowledge leadership is imposing on higher education institutions.
to be the repositories of knowledge and learning and the is increasing. One of the implications of this rising pace of A cacophony of voices, a diversity of expectations and
structures through which knowledge is produced and knowledge decay is that we must be specialists. contradictory requests are all evident. There is no doubt
disseminated. Without world-class expertise in our domain we that the world finds itself in a precarious situation where
They have survived sweeping societal changes created by are reduced to being commodities. As these pools of constant change is ubiquitous and responses are slow.
technology – the moveable-type printing press, previous deep knowledge around the world are connected, the Moreover, it has been frequently argued that higher
industrial revolutions, information and communication phenomenon of collective intelligence is beginning to education is a “consumer market”. Such a market would
technologies, electronic media and computers. emerge. While this idea is not new, it is only in the last exceed a billion “customers” with varying behaviour and
Today, however, higher education institutions appear to decade that we have become so richly connected through demands. Higher education institutions will have to adapt
be susceptible to technology disruption as much as other technology that collective intelligence is moving from a to changing consumer behaviour trends, while maintaining
information-centric industries such as the news media, dream to reality. This is a major shift in who we are, our a focus on the balance between disciplinary skills, in-
magazines and journals, encyclopaedias, music, movies and human identity, and in how we learn. demand skills and employability competences.
TV. This can be reflected in the fact that the transmission of A former director of Xerox PARC laboratory, John In today’s job market there is an increasing need for
knowledge does not have to be tethered to a fixed location Seely, wrote in 2011 that the half-life of a skill is five years training and retraining of individuals.
or campus. The technical affordability of cloud-based (and shrinking). This means that half of what is learnt Thus, a focus on job-oriented education and on economic
computing, Artificial Intelligence-based learning platforms, today will become obsolete in five years or less. This idea participation is driving an emphasis on relevance or on what
massive open online courses, high-quality streaming video, is receiving a great deal of attention from leaders of higher can be called vocationalism – and thus changing the demand
and “just-in-time” information gathering have pushed education institutions, who must plan for a future in which structure for higher education with profound effects on
vast amounts of knowledge to the “placeless” World Wide students will need to keep learning new skills ever more the support of, demand for, and appropriate preparation of
Web. This has sparked a re-examination of the role of frequently before and after they graduate. participants for a rapidly changing job market that requires
contemporary higher education institutions within society. The advent of and necessity for continual re-skilling 21st century skills and competencies.
Indeed, higher education institutions are being disrupted by will impact most on the graduate professional education In the Fourth Industrial Revolution (and its attendant skills
a wide variety of social and technological forces. segment, which has traditionally been structured around revolution) the number of jobs involving routine skills has
Developments including the globalisation of services one- and two-year Master’s degree programmes. A widely shrunk as a result of increased automation. AI technologies
work, the increasing value of domain expertise, rapid held view is that such graduates will consume this lifelong like machine learning and computer vision are permanently
developments in educational technology and the rise of learning in short spurts when they need it, rather than in eliminating low-skill jobs. The trend in economies is to turn
online open courses are creating both challenges and relatively lengthier blocks of time as is the case presently. from manufacturing to service, in which most new jobs do
opportunities for incumbents as well as new entrants. However, the most important challenge will involve not require advanced education. Rather, human skill in
The unbundling of research, educational delivery, content a shift in the way students consume higher education. creativity, imagination and problem-solving will become
and block chain certification means that new business Participation in tertiary education is set to increase. New key differentiators in a hybrid workforce that involves
models and ways of engaging students will be at the heart educational technologies could open the doors to new collaboration between human talent and technology in the
of future higher education landscape. knowledge for a wider audience, if the current social form of smart machines and robots.
With the world in a state of major transition, education stratification of access and usage patterns could be Finally, in conceding that education in general and higher
in general, and higher education in particular, becomes overcome. education in particular are on the brink of huge disruptions,
critical in this seismic shift because the transitions being Consequently, higher education institutions like two questions have become paramount. What should young
experienced are centred on two essential elements – Regent Business School are learning to be nimbler, people be learning? And what credentials will indicate that
knowledge and skills. In addition, the pace of the decay entrepreneurial, student-focused and accountable for they would be ready for the workforce?
of knowledge has increased significantly. In the past, a what students learn. New learning styles and mounting We believe that in order to remain relevant, higher
university student would enrol for a degree, graduate, and financial and sustainability pressures are impacting the education will have to fundamentally reorganise its current
live off the knowledge obtained for at least 10 years. Today, education landscape. (post-industrial) model and engage in deep curriculum
by the time a qualification is achieved, the knowledge and Equally, there appear to be many trends, pressures, and reform in order to match the skills revolution required for
competencies need to be refreshed. concerns that society through its political and economic a complex and uncertain future.

Shaikh is a senior academic and researcher and the
EMPOWERING Graduates with 21st Century Skills Managing Director of REGENT Business School

DIGITAL SKILLS

3D Printing Raspberry Pi Arduino Laser Cutting Website
Workshop Workshop Electronics Workshop Building
SOFT SKILLS WORKSHOP

Emotional Personality Critical Stress & Conflict Creativity &
Intelligence Assessments Thinking Management Design Thinking

Visit our website www.regent.ac.za for more information.

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