Parenting Insights – Parenting in the age of disruption
We live in the age of disruption.
The future your children will inherit will be very different than the world we live in now. A university degree, once a guarantee of a well-paid job, no longer ensures your child a career, let alone a steady income.
So how can we prepare children to thrive in a world where it’s estimated that over 20 per cent of today’s jobs won’t exist in just five year’s time? How do we prepare them for a work-life of multiple careers and job changes?
South African educator and author Nikki Bush believes that the future will belong to those who develop a broad range of personal capabilities rather than a narrow number of academic abilities. Bush has outlined five key personal factors that will help kids succeed in the future world of work.
These are:
1. Creativity and Innovation
With information being only a digital search away, knowledge is relatively easy to obtain in the digital age. The ability to think outside the square and find new solutions to old problems will be one of the most highly valued skills in the new world of work.
2. Love of learning
In a world where people working into their seventies and beyond will become common place, a degree of qualification obtained in the early twenties won’t guarantee continued success. The future will require people to be in charge of their own learning and be willing to continually upskill. Continuous learners rather than those who close themselves off to new ideas and concepts will thrive in the future.
3. Resilience
Life doesn’t unfold in a straight line. It never has, but the future of work will have more twists and curves than ever before. Kids will need to be resilient and flexible enough to cope with rapid workplace change and lack of security, as well as be able to manage risk to earning a living.
4. Self knowledge
Personal knowledge of strengths, capabilities and talents has long been a skill, that we’ve neglected to develop in kids. When the future is fluid and work continually changing, self-knowledge will become a passport to happiness and success.
Reassuringly, there is a great deal you can do as a parent to prepare your child to capitalise on the changing career and jobs landscape. Use Bush’s five personal factors for future success as a starting point as you ponder how to prepare your child to prosper in the age of disruptive change.
Related Webinar
Our school has a membership with Parenting Ideas. As part of this membership, you can attend the below webinar ‘Futureproofing your child’ at no cost. In this webinar Nikki Bush teaches parents what to expect and how to support their kids to thrive in a future world of work.
