Opinion | Choose future ready courses to increase employability

As we embark towards a post-pandemic new world of economic uncertainties and challenges, how can you better prepare yourself to compete and succeed in the future workforce? How do you leverage university education opportunities and enhance your technical and interpersonal skills that employers are looking for? How do you get future ready ‘now’ for many of those jobs which are yet to unfold in the years to come? In addressing these critical questions, it is important to note the value and significance of higher education in British universities, especially the influence and impact of research-intensive Russell Group institutions driven by high standards and impact in research innovations and entrepreneurship.

Evolving global job markets

Within the next three years, millions of existing jobs will be either discarded or transfigured by disruptive technologies. The so-called future of work is already happening right now in digital formats and in remote virtual and hybrid modes, and fast penetrating global economies and geographies. However, the new and emerging models of work are overly competitive, outcome oriented and heavily skill dependent, both professional and interpersonal.

Digital skills deficit

Today’s global businesses and supply chains involve a rare combination of human-machine interface, driven by complex data and AI algorithms. Automation, robotics, internet of things, Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR and AR) have become rapidly integrated into our routines at an unprecedented pace. However, as technology gets smarter, the digital skills deficit remains a critical challenge worldwide. Whether it is health, education, energy, environment, or defence, most of our business, economic, and even political decisions are informed and influenced by data, yet less than a third of our workforce are adequately skilled in data analytics and computational intelligence.

As we create new jobs, employers increasingly struggle to recruit professionally competent and skilled people. Recent employer surveys show, surprisingly, that four out of five recent graduates are deemed unfit for their jobs because of lack of professional competencies or interpersonal skills, or both.

Getting a university degree is what most young people do, but only a small fraction succeed and sustain in their jobs. Graduates often underperform at job interviews or later in their jobs because of a lack of essential skill sets and mindsets: problem solving, research, analysis, creativity, cultural understanding and adaptive learning, critical thinking, listening, judgement and decision-making, as well as leadership, teamwork, empathy, emotional and social intelligence. Lack of confidence and poor communication skills further undermine job prospects for young graduates.

Global challenges

In the future of work, graduates will need to demonstrate a deeper knowledge and understanding of cross-cutting global challenges: climate, environment and energy emergencies, population change, economic inequalities, geopolitical uncertainties, diseases burden and ecological crisis. No doubt, smart technological innovations will mitigate these challenges. We already see robots cleaning oceans and restoring corals, drones delivering public healthcare, AI, VR enabling medical decision-making.

Flexible higher education

Curriculum flexibility has evolved as an integral part of the British higher education system. At the University of Southampton, students majoring in Music, Arts, Medicine, Business, Psychology and social sciences can take courses on the fundamentals of artificial intelligence and machine learning, or those enrolled in Maths, Physics and Geography major can learn global health, demography, sustainability, Fintech, business skills and entrepreneurship. Indeed, a lawyer or an engineer in the future of work would find it challenging to perform without comprehending cybersecurity and climate change.

– The writer is Principal (retired) and Educational Columnist from Malout Punjab. He can be reached at vkmalout@gmail.com