Millennial Workforce

The job market is changing.  Automation is coming and replacing not just lower skilled positions but also higher skilled areas.  Schools need to refocus their objects from preparing students for a job to preparing them to be entrepreneurs.  In order to be successful you will need to be an entrepreneur of your passions...

There needs to be a shift in how and what we are teaching our kids to prepare for.  They need to be preparing to be self-learners and have the ability to weave their way through the marketplace to find a place where they are comfortable and can contribute to society.  God has given us all abilities and strengths.  We need to identify what those strengths and abilities are and then use them to identify ways to help others.  By helping others we are using our passions to create value for others, which in turn contributes to society.

This is not going to be easy.  We will need a paradigm shift in what we think of school today.  Kids need the opportunity to explore what their gifts and talents are.  They need to be given a chance to focus on where they find interest.  Through those interests they will develop an appreciation and a desire to become life-long learners.

Side note: Our current school system is preparing kids for college so they can get jobs.  These jobs pay the bills so that we can live in comfort.  The next generation needs to change this deception.  They need to be focused on freedom.  The ability to be life-long learners will provide this freedom.

Future Thought Leaders

We need to think critically, creativity, and logically in the future.  Since the beginning of civilization kids have gotten a majority of their education and knowledge from their parents.  In our modern connected urbanized world we have lost focus on educating our kids about our values, our dreams, and passing on our knowledge about the world.  We now depend on a socialized school system that was mainly centers around initial preparing kids for manufacturing jobs and know focused on going to college to get "jobs".  This is not what I would call a healthy system of education.  As pareents we have allowed ourselves to fall back on a system that corporately indoctrinates our kids with the idea that we all need to be the same, to fall in line with the status quo agenda of the day.  As parents we have accepted this system because it wasn't bad enough to make that big of a difference in the future of our kids.  But times are changing and this corporate way of thinking will not allow us to mature individually or as a society in ways that are needed to meet the challenges of the future.  Technology and our social attitudes have evolved to a point where it is hard to predict how our kids will respond to these changes.

In the past it was easier to see how the next generation would pass on the values and knowledge of the previous generation, today that transfer is almost nonexistent.  Parents connection to their children have been reduced to providing food, shelter, and transportation to ever increasing amount of activities either at school or available in the "community".  This is not how God intended it to be.  We need to look for ways to build a bond between parents and their kids.  (We need to foster relationships intergenerationally as well.  The wisdom and knowledge of previous generations are being lost.)  

To go along with this we need to look at new ways of teaching kids so they are prepared for the world of tomorrow.  The world of tomorrow will require deeper more critical thinking, thinking at higher level to develop the solutions that will be needed to tackle the challenges that are headed our way.  We need to think inventively, tactically, and critically.  We need to educate in ways that meet multiple learning abilities and skill sets.  As kids start moving into their teen years they need to start honing in on their passions, abilities, and strengths.  Some may say that they are not ready by then, I believe that is because of our low expectations and the amount of distractions that have encroached on our time.  At this time they may need to start looking at specific training or apprentice opportunities that will allow them to focus in on a certain area of interest.  This may take the form of alternate schools for different kids.  These schools would not be right for everyone, they would be more specialized and offer a connection to specific industries.  The typical schools that we see today would take on the form of preparing kids for professional jobs that require college education.

College has become a very expense and overrated requirement in today's world.  As you can see with the mounting college debt that students have amassed, it is becoming clear that college may not be the best investment, as it has been touted in the past.  This debt is surpassing the value that it adds to ones career and our economy as a whole.  We have lots of occupations and opportunities that do not require formal "college" education to do.  

As the world gets more sophisticated we need to evolve to be more efficient, teach our kids to be more creative in their thinking and be able to manage what value they offer the work force of tomorrow.  Let us start exploring these ideas today so that the kids that are growing up now can take on this modern world with all the tools tools they will need to be competitive and create new opportunities to expand our world.

Another item that needs to be taught is self promotion and selling of ones abilities.  We live in a world where there is no company loyalty.  Even if you work for a company you are still basically a contractor, they can let you go at any moment, you can leave at any moment.  I envision a time where there are no longer "employees" as we think of them today.  In order to stay a company you will need to constantly prove yourself (just as you would if you had your own business) to your employer, if you want an increase in pay, you will need to demonstrate that you have added additional value to the company, you will need to increase your skill set, and be innovative in how you approach your work to be increasing competitive with the growing labor pool.  

Future of Education

The education of the next generation lies with utilizing, incorporating, etc. the changes that have been brought about by the information age technology; database management, information search-ability, and access to infinite amounts of information.  The future of education will take full advantage of these opportunities to offer educational services to everyone who is willing to partake.

We need to understand how the next generation is being raised, what information they have access to, how they think (they think differently then being raised in a non information accessible generation) in order to maximize the learning experience and prepare them for their future.  Our current system of education, class room lectures, short periods of learning one subject and moving to another subject, corporate learning, everyone graded based on where they should be for their age level and in preparation for going to college, etc.  I would like to note at this time that college is a good alternative for kids that need additional training in a professional subject, but it is not the right choice for everyone, and in today's world even the idea of going to college is getting turned on its head.

It is amazing to see how all the schools in this country have finally gotten around to preparing all students to go to college.  We have eliminated shop classes (we are too smart to have to build things with our hands), we focus more on social agendas than factual information, and we have reduced education to teaching everyone that they need to think all the same so we don't hurt anyone's feelings.  Listen, we will not survive as a country if we continue down this path.  We need to understand, embrace, and learn to communicate our differences in a civil, critical thinking, and honest manner.  We need to offer opportunities for kids to fail, to understand that we are not all going to be successful at the same thing, or all live in the same type of life style.  We need to broaden the possibilities and the acceptance of the type of work that provides for our families, the type of lifestyles that make up a dynamic, fruitful society.

The future is not about getting a job, although that's what a lot of us will do and that's ok, but the job landscape is changing and we will get into that in a moment, its about preparing kids to be independent.  In our society today there is no company loyalty, we have moved to a "contract" mentality even if we work for a company as an employee we can leave at anytime.  We need to teach our kids how to represent themselves whether they go to work for a company, start their own company, or create opportunities that create an income; we need to teach our kids about all these opportunities and how to operate in this future environment.

When you look at some of the most successful people in the world, a lot of them did not have a college or even some a high school education.  As Robert Kiyosaki points out in his book "A's and B's work for C's", C's being capitalists, these are people that create opportunities.  They are the visionaries.  These are the people that create the future.  We need to prepare our kids to think like this in the coming "work" environment.  We need to teach them to think critically, creativity, and cognitively.  We need to offer them hands on experiences.  As they think critically they will discover to use their brains to solve complicated problems and overcome their failures.

We need to be teaching the next generation with the skills to think this way.  In a digital world we need to offer opportunities to be hands-on, to think strategically (verses data collectors, reference: "Making Your Brain Smarter" by Sandra Bond Chapman), and think independently.

What if we created an environment where kids could explore ideas, learn through doing (and failing), and get exposure to hand-on applications, and real life experiences?  An environment that will prepare them earlier in life for being leaders that are successful and productive in business, the community, and as citizens.  With the access to unlimited educational programs and courses on line this is possible, to gain insight from the best teachers in the world and at a fraction of the price of a college education.  We need to take advantage of this access and provide instructional support to guide our kids to thinking this way earlier in life.  The one piece of information that I remember from college about being a designer was, you just need to know where to look for information, because you are not going to learn everything in school.  I want to offer this opportunity to the next generation.  To teach them not about facts and figures, but about the learning process and that the opportunities are limitless, they just need to know where to look and how to manage that knowledge and they will go far in life.

Values to instill:

1. To serve God and our neighbors with all our heart, mind, and soul.

2. Instill critical, creative, and cognitive skills to foster innovation, creativity, and self reliant thinking.

3. We need to learn and work smart so we can give generously.

Teaching focused on:

1. Values and principles from the bible

2. Citizenship through History Study

3. Information gathering and management

4. Hand-on experiences

5. Business/Management Systems

The sooner one can fail the sooner they will become wise.  Through the exercise of trial and error kids can build upon that experience.  They not only learn that they made a bad decision (critical thinking) they need to work through that mistake (cognitive thinking) to develop a solution to being successful (creative thinking).  What if we provided the resources, guidance, and wisdom to get to a successful solution faster?  This is the idea behind the next generation "school".  It would be an entrepreneur experience that would immerse the kids in a high sensory learning environment.  At first this could be overwhelming.  Part of this experience will be to help manage and start to build a path that will lead to to being a creative, generous, and successful leader that will not only create opportunities for themselves, but others as well.