The new mindset of learning/teaching and preparing for the future

The pandemic has got many universities to scramble for a new way of teaching. Jobs are changing, demanding more skill and more working on a distance. But this is today

 What we do not take into consideration are the skill sets necessary for tomorrow’s job and employment.

 Many years ago I had a class studying international business visiting a large international corporation in Sweden. One of the students asked. “Would you employ someone from this class, based on our education?”

The president’s answer was. “90% of whom we employ is based on the attitude of that person. The rest is education and experience. We know that a person with the right and positive attitude can achieve almost everything. A person with good education and a good experience but with the wrong attitude does not fit in our organization.” We know that things continuously change. We talk about lifelong learning, but 50% of what we learned has already changed when we graduate. If you are a Medical Doctor, Pilot and Accountant you know you continuously have to update yourself. That should also apply to any profession and also be mirrored in our education system.

 So how do you as a student and your school adapt to:

1. You have to study and prepare for a job that does not exist today. Your future employer will hire you not based on your skill but based on your mindset and being prepared for the job of the future
2. The future technology is not yet invented but .you have to adapt to it and be ready.
3. You as a student will have to solve a problem that does not exist today. The school has to prepare you for that skill.

I.e. your success will be based on how well you can adapt to the future.

 This is the fact you as a student, school and teacher have to face. You have to learn, teach and adapt your teaching for the future, not the past.

 You cannot just adapt your teaching to the change this year. You have to change your education to adapt to the future, the next 5, 10, 50 years.

 Are you teaching for the skills needed today or for the future? Your students need to be prepared for the future; they will select a school based on what you can offer.

 You have to challenge the students and practice for what if?

 Your students have to finish the education not only with the skills needed for the future but also with the attitude “I can do it.” I.e. the school has to let the students solve “impossible” cases already in school. Not only find the right solution but also make mistakes.

 The school has to allow the students to work on impossible problems and even screw up. It is better for them to make the mistakes at school then when employed in a company.

 I have always been surprised and so also the students how they can solve “impossible tasks” under pressure and very limited time allowed. By forcing them continuously to solve problems under pressure, their attitude change and so also their self-esteem, they are surprised too what they can do. I have practiced the same technique with executives, locking them in for 24 hours to solve problems. By pushing their brain and “wearing them out” they open up their mind to new solutions.

 They say the best entrepreneurs are those that have made a lot of mistakes, even having their companies gone bankrupt. Those mistakes get you, even more, prepared the right solutions,

 Invite speakers with the right attitude that have succeeded but also who share their mistakes. This is part of the learning.

Modern educations are not to listen to lectures and believe what you are taught. You have to challenge and practice what you learn and make the mistakes and learn from them

 We tend to prepare for the future by looking in the rear mirror when we have to expect what would happen in the future and prepare for that.

 Your education has to include how the future would look like. Some ideas of changes: International Business in the Future

 You are finishing your education for a job that does not exist, but have to train to adapt,

Companies will hire you for your mindset, not a skill set. You will have a job that did not exist when you started your education and that constantly changes. Retraining is part of the future. That is a growing opportunity for offering additional education for the schools to add continuous updates. Those that are not willing to train will miss out.

 In the future you have to use technology that has not been invented yet, to solve a problem that we do not know about yet, your school has to teach you how to adapt. You will be hired based on what you have to offer.

 To produce the student prepared for the future we have to change the way we accept people to university. Not the one with the best marks, but those that have the attitude to change and adapt for the future to become tomorrow’s entrepreneur and executive.

 Are you ready for the future?  Is your education adapted to this?

 “It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change”

Charles Darwin.

 It is time our education and teaching adapt to the new world. We compete in a global market and so does our education.

 People are mobile and today’s technology does not limit us to education where we live. We can study abroad and remotely.

 For more on teaching look at our other articles.

Education today and tomorrow. The force to restructure and change the educational system. Is Covid-19 the final activity to get it moving? 

Is this the time to change the way we teach international business? How to improve remote teaching, on-line and with webinars and video conferencing. Teaching/learning and tools in the new educational market.

I hope you agree with me that we have to change and adapt our teaching to the market of tomorrow.

I am looking forward to your comments and suggestions.

 Leif Holmvall
President