The robots aren’t coming – they’re here. From self-driving cars to smart speakers, automation is ubiquitous. Artificial intelligence (AI) may be extraordinary, raising productivity and making life easier, but it’s impact on the jobs market is set to be significant.
A 2014 study from Oxford University and Deloitte forecast that 35% of the UK workforce could be replaced by machines in two decades. And it’s not only manual labour that’s in danger: white-collar work, too, is vulnerable as computers become more advanced – software is starting to supplant financiers, it can do the work of journalists and lawyers, even medics are being assisted: IBM’s Watson Assistant is using AI to provide answers on Covid-19.
The only certainty about the future of work is that it’s uncertain. So how can teachers steel their students for the unprecedented workplace disruption that’s coming? Robot-proofing careers will require higher education to be revised. Governments and employers agree that graduates should not only strengthen technical skills – they also need “soft skills” because they are hard to automate and may help humans steal a march on machines.
The four essential abilities are:
creativity, to come up with fresh ideas;
creative problem solving to provide solutions and take action;
critical thinking to analyse information and make a judgement;
collaboration to work in teams to achieve aims.
“These are the skills that will carry this next generation into the workforce and beyond over the next 30 or 40 years,” says Melissa Vito, interim vice-provost for academic innovation from the University of Texas at San Antonio.
But how can these skills be taught? Perhaps ironically, becoming digitally literate – using technology to create content – can cultivate soft skills simultaneously. Creating podcasts or videos, for instance, tends to involve thinking critically about presenting information and how to imaginatively communicate it. Students often collaborate and solve problems too.
“This has transformed learning for many of our students,” says Vito. Her university has joined the Adobe Creative Campus programme, which makes their collaborative software such as Photoshop (image editing) and Audition (audio editing) available to students from every academic discipline, not just overtly creative subjects such as design, but business and medicine.
“Having used Adobe Creative Cloud, they are more creative, approach problems from different perspectives, and can communicate more confidently in new and more powerful ways,” she says.
However, higher education could do more to provide students with these paramount skills. In a poll for Adobe, 69% of educators said the syllabus does not focus enough on creative problem solving, for example. Respondents cited scarcity of time, training and software as being among the key barriers to greater adoption. As such, Adobe offers skills workshops for teachers, helping them deliver these vital pieces of learning.
A myriad of higher education institutions have joined the programme, recognising that many students learn best by doing, reflecting their comfort with technology. As a result, they may be more engaged and learning outcomes can improve, while students acquire skills for the future of work and create digital portfolios to help in getting hired.
Despite the jobs shake-up foretold by economists, a study from PwC argues that AI will replace any obsolete roles by boosting the economy.
Proponents believe machines can rid us of mundane and routine tasks, freeing up time for higher-value work that we actually enjoy. Accountants at EY, for one, have developed an AI for identifying the right tax codes for capital allowances that can do in just three seconds what it took 15 hours for a human to do.
With technical tasks like this being automated, soft skills are essential to the work humans do in the 21st century. Among a basket of eight competencies deemed critical by the US National Association of Colleges and Employers, critical thinking and problem solving came top in a 2018 poll of 172 employers.
“AI will enhance, not replace the workforce,” says Sebastian Distefano, global manager of strategic development, higher education at Adobe. “AI can be creative, but creativity won’t be automated any time soon.
“So hiring managers are really stressing these soft skills and they must be emphasised across higher education and across all disciplines. And when it comes to developing soft skills, digital tools support those learning outcomes.”
One company that prizes these smarts is Google. But in the search giant’s early days, its founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page hired people in their image: top computer scientists, reflecting the company’s focus on technology.
However, Google’s own analysis of its employment and promotion data in 2013 revealed that the seven most crucial qualities of its top-performing employees were all soft skills, including critical thinking and problem-solving talent. Technical abilities came last on the list.
No surprise that Google subsequently cast its recruitment net wider, beyond tech wizards to catch business and humanities graduates, even artists as well. Further research revealed that Google’s best new ideas came from teams that had a broad array of soft skills, not just groups with top computer scientists.
With soft skills so crucial to jobs in the fourth industrial revolution, it’s likely that more higher education institutions will adapt their teaching to place a greater emphasis on the abilities that robots cannot yet replicate or replace. Technology can help to nurture such skills, but it’s being human that will set tomorrow’s graduates apart from the robots.
