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

 
 
Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education 
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3. 
New Demands 
Educating humans instead of robots 
375 million. 
That is the number of workers globally who may need to switch occupations by 
2030 as a consequence of technological advances, according to McKinsey Global 
Institute (MGI)
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. Estimates on the impact of automation vary a lot on the 
numbers
15
. However, what most reports on the Future of Work agree on, is that 
labour demand will change, and this includes the report by MGI: “Workers of the 
future will spend more time on activities that machines are less capable of [..] The 
skills and capabilities required will also shift, requiring more social and emotional 
skills and more advanced cognitive capabilities”. 
Technology thus not only affects the shape of higher education, but also the 
content through new demands from the labour market. According to the literature, 
the future of (human) work is based on non-routine tasks, and the need for soft 
skills such as creativity, problem-solving and critical thinking will be in demand
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. 
These demands can only be met if the educational system is able to supply the 
right type of skills, which is why ‘new demands’ is not only a catchy headline, but a 
driver of change in the educational sector – not least in the US. Technologies such 
as AI and robotics may change the circumstances for work across the board of 
occupations as routine-based tasks increasingly become automatable. If these 
changing circumstances come into effect, it requires new learning objectives and 
new ways of learning that are oriented towards the future of work. The following 
chapter thus shifts focus from technology’s impact on the shape of education, to its 
potential impact on the content of education as it is seen in the US.