By Kathleen Mazor, EdD, MS
Contributing Writer

Education can equip learners with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in the modern workplace. Education can also serve as a pathway to career advancement and opportunities for personal and professional growth. Employers increasingly seek candidates with formal education and specialized training to meet the demands of evolving industries and technological advancements. In short, education plays a vital role in preparing individuals to enter the workforce, contribute meaningfully to their chosen fields, and adapt to the changing dynamics of the global economy.

One goal of education is to prepare students for the world of work. People who have completed more formal education are more likely to be employed and to be paid more than people with less education. Employers tend to pay attention to and make decisions based on an applicant’s educational qualifications. In addition, more highly educated adults are more apt to be socially engaged and more likely to participate in lifelong learning.

Young people seeking work today encounter a very different world than the one their forbears encountered when public education was first spreading throughout the western world. Relatively recently in human history, we have undergone four pivotal periods of technological change, referred to as the four Industrial Revolutions.

The First Industrial Revolution, from the late 18th to early 19th century, introduced mechanized manufacturing powered by steam engines. The Second Industrial Revolution, spanning the late 19th to early 20th century, saw the widespread adoption of electricity, the rise of steel production, and the advent of mass production techniques. The Third Industrial Revolution, occurring from the late 20th century to the early 21st century, brought about the digital age with computers, the internet, and telecommunications. Now, the ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution integrates digital, biological, and physical technologies, including AI, robotics, and biotechnology, reshaping economies, societies, and daily life worldwide. Each revolution has profoundly transformed industries and societies, driving progress and presenting new challenges.

According to the World Economic Forum, “the Fourth Industrial Revolution represents a fundamental change in the way we live, work and relate to one another. It is a new chapter in human development, enabled by extraordinary technological advances commensurate with those of the first, second and third industrial revolutions. These advances are merging the physical, digital and biological worlds in ways that create both huge promise and potential peril.”

This revolution has important implications for education. While mathematics, science and language are important foundation skills, according to Andreas Schleicher of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), educators need to understand that“the kind of things which are easy to teach and easy to test are also the kind of things that are easy to digitize, automate and outsource.”

The 2023 World Economic Forum (WEF) Future of Jobs Report notes that “The Fourth Industrial Revolution has accelerated the pace of adoption of technologies and shifted the frontier between humans and machines across sectors and geographies. Technology is altering the way we work, but also changing job content, skills in need, and which jobs are being displaced.” According to business leaders, the five most important skills during these changing times are:

• Analytical thinking
• Creative thinking
• Resilience, flexibility and agility
• Motivation and self-awareness
• Curiosity and lifelong learning

These results suggest that while cognitive skills are important, they are not sufficient for success in most occupations.

“Education is an asset not only because of its intrinsic value, but also because it provides individuals with skills and acts as a signal of such skills.”