Icdk outlook No. 04, May 2019 The Future of Education

Figure 3. An increasing need for soft skills 
CEO’s evaluation of relative importance of and need for skills
18
Source: PwC’s 20
th 
Global CEO survey, 2017 (n=1379) 
17
Reigeluth, 2012
18
Q1: In addition to technical business expertise, how important are the following skills 
to your organisation? Q2: How difficult, if at all, is it for your organisation to recruit 
people with these skills or characteristic?

---

 
 
Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education 
15 
Most of the newly established institutions in the US recognize a need for 
cooperating more closely with industry and thus develop the learning objectives 
and curriculum of their new educations in close collaboration with industry 
partners, even in fields such as liberal arts or computer science. These alternatives 
are not only changing the shape of education but are adapting the content to the 
changing demands of the labour market as well. 
Changing the content of education at American institutions does not go without 
concern. As with unbundling, educators discuss the implications of creating 
educational content on the premises of industry demands as some argue that 
education is supposed to build a foundation for more than ‘just’ employment.
The demand for new skills is being addressed in most reports on the future of work 
and if the educational system is not adapting, they project a large skills-gap in the 
future
19
. This either leaves the responsibility of re-skilling to the companies or calls 
for change in the educational content. The institutions can however also foster the 
needed soft skills through new ways of learning, which might foster the soft skills 
in demand without necessarily making the curriculum more job-focused.
The following section looks into new ways of learning to consider how to promote 
the soft skills that are expected to rise in demand.
3.1.2 Ways of learning 
In a system where practically everyone agree, that students learn at a different 
pace and where student motivation is key to ensure life-long learning, it is 
remarkable that the current educational system is designed as a “one-size fits all’ 
model, developed in the industrial age. This somewhat provoking message from 
Charles M. Reigeluth of Indiana University is part of the discussion on how the 
ways of learning need to change
20
. The new paradigm that is called for, may 
change the role of the teacher to a mentor and facilitator of learning, as the role of 
students change towards a self-directed learner and teacher. The groundworks 
have already been made for making such a change, with the emergence of 
19
See fx Illanes et al. of McKinsey Global Institute, 2018
20
Reigeluth, 2012