Skills development will be more important than a degree and skills-based courses are the future.
There will be a rapid rise in the emergence of the following skills: retailing, banking, selling, mobile repairing, fashion and jewellery to name a few.
Another innovation would be flexibility in the completion of a course. This will allow students to pace themselves.
With technology and globalisation, the education system also needs to change, fast. Take India for instance. The country has been experiencing a rapid increase in student enrolments for higher education in the area of management such as MBA over the past decade.
In the light of the above, new education avenues are opening up. Among the existing courses, hospitality management has tremendous potential, including specific areas such as hotel management, culinary management, and travel and tourism.
As technology is rapidly changing the world around us, many people worry that it will replace human intelligence. However, technology could be a huge enabler and facilitate the learning process.
Education today lists the following 10 positive changes we will see with education technology:
1. Students can learn at any time and at any place.
2. Personalised learning at one's own pace and speed.
3. Flexible paths and more choice of subjects.
4. Blended learning, flipped classrooms and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) for learning.
5. Project-based and experiential learning.
6. Increasing importance of data interpretation and data analytics.
7. Examination patterns will change completely with increased use of online quizzes, group projects, and group discussions.
8. Student ownership in the learning process will increase and he/she would need to take more responsibility in the learning process. However, the teacher would now be the clarifier and the problem solving specialist.
9. Classrooms would move towards being paperless and more computer-based.
10. Mentoring will become more important. Though the students will incorporate so much independence in to their learning process, mentoring will become fundamental to student success.
Changing times do warrant a change in the education options that are available to students. The time has come to radically evaluate existing programmes and reinvent them as needed.