Executive summary

The nature of work is changing. While our parents and grandparents could once expect to get a job directly out of high school and keep it for life, today’s workers cannot. Technology is partly to blame for this. Bill Gates has predicted that at least a dozen job types, like commercial pilots and real estate agents, will be automated or performed by robots within the next two decades. Similarly, other predictions have stated that more than 2 billion jobs will disappear by 2030 due to technological improvements.

However, it is not all doom and gloom. Technology has also brought with it products, processes, jobs and industries that our parent’s generation never imagined. A US Department of Labor report in 2013 made the bold claim that 65 per cent of today’s school children will eventually be employed in jobs that are yet to be invented. Further, today’s typical fifteen year-old can expect to have upwards of 17 jobs in five different industries over the course of their lifetime.

As the nature of work has changed, so too must the education curriculum. Skills and technical knowledge that were once a necessity for the work environment have now become redundant, and have been replaced by different capabilities. Workers must now have a good understanding of computers, and be able to use them efficiently. They must be able to work in teams, and have a good sense of intercultural differences; and they must be able to make sense of and solve complex, often ambiguous problems. These ‘soft’ skills are the new normal, and all future jobs will require them.

However, this does not mean that our education system needs a complete overhaul. Traditional knowledge, such as literacy, numeracy and scientific competence will also be in high demand in the workplace of the future. As Australia shifts from a resource economy into an advanced manufacturing and knowledge-based economy; science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) knowledge will be in high demand. The problem is, Australia’s international scores on these subjects have been slipping in recent years. Additionally, fewer students are choosing to study STEM subjects in the upper high school years. Engagement with STEM subjects is at its lowest it has been in living memory, yet those skills have never been more necessary.

The other phenomenon affecting Australia is a growing disparity between high and low academic achievers. Young people from disadvantaged or Indigenous families, or who live in remote regions of Australia are far more likely to begin school developmentally behind their peers. Many will then record below-par results throughout primary school, become disengaged from education, and be locked into a lifetime of underachievement. Few will finish high school, and probably struggle to find meaningful employment as a result. Many of those young people will then be trapped in a cycle of poverty, and all the problems, including health, wellness and lack of opportunities that life brings.