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TRANSFORMING EDUCATION Fadi Abdul Khalek, Vice President, Strategic Partnerships and Efficacy, Pearson Education shares insights into the skills needed to be employable in 2030 While it is impossible to specifically describe the kind of jobs that will be available in the next decade or so, recent data from various studies indicates that 40%-60% of the jobs of 2030 are not even invented yet. Therefore, at this stage, one can highlight two things: 1) the kind of skill sets that would be required to adequately perform future jobs and 2) the general trends within wider areas of the industry rather than specific jobs. In terms of skill sets, research puts complex problem solving, critical thinking, emotional intelligence and people management among the top 10 skills needed. In terms of industries, I would put jobs related to the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data analytics, robotics and genetic engineering among the fastest growing technical skills needed within the job market of the future. The application of these technical skills can be in many different growing fields such as medicine, agriculture, transportation, logistics and more.
Critical leadership skills for the future According to a recent study by the World Bank, 50% of today’s jobs will be eliminated by 2030 and replaced by new jobs. The impact that this will have on leadership skills is tremendous. Decision making in the next 10 years will be crucial to be able to survive, lead and create the future. Some of these critical leadership skills revolve around SMART SMB | OCTOBER 2018
clarity, dilemma flipping, constructive depolarization and conflict management, rapid prototyping and immersive learning and adapting capabilities.
e-learning For adult education, it is important to note that obstacles to adoption of e-learning is, to a certain extent, cultural as much as it is regulatory. We are slowly seeing more acceptance of eLearning (and other lighter forms of Blended learning) among both private companies as well as individuals. A report by Research and Markets titled the ‘Middle East Online Education & E Learning Market Size, Demand, Opportunity & Growth Outlook 2023’ throws up some interesting facts. The Middle East Online Education market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 9.8% during the forecast period of 2017-2023. The market growth is likely to be driven by the huge government investment and rapid adoption of online education and e-learning by educational institutes and corporate organizations. Geographically speaking, the largest share of the online education and e-learning market is held by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and is expected to garner USD 237.1 million by 2023. UAE comes in at the second place and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.3% over the same period. Government lead initiatives are picking up pace and are in the right direction. One such example is Rahhal, part of