Occupier_Edge_Ed5_A4

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RETHINKING EDUCATION
SYSTEMS
By one popular estimate 65%
of children entering primary
schools today will ultimately work
in new job types and functions
that currently don’t yet exist.
Technological trends such as the
Fourth Industrial Revolution will
create many new cross-functional
roles for which employees will
need both technical and social
and analytical skills. Most existing
education systems at all levels
provide highly siloed training
and continue a number of
20th-century practices that are
hindering progress on today’s
talent and labour market issues.
Two such legacy issues burdening
formal education systems
worldwide are the dichotomy
between Humanities and
Sciences and applied and pure
training, on the one hand, and
the prestige premium attached
to tertiary-certified forms of
education–rather than the actual
content of learning–on the other
hand. Put bluntly, there is simply
no good reason to indefinitely
maintain either of these in
today’s world. Businesses should
work closely with governments,
education providers and others to
imagine what a true 21st-century
curriculum might look like.
of children entering primary
school will work in jobs that
don’t exist today
-“Shift Happens”,
Scott McLeod and Karl Fisch
students will graduate from
Chinese universities in 2017
- World Economic Forum
is spent by universities on
construction annually across the
UK, nearly double the pace of
spending a decade ago
- The Economist
65%
£2.4
billion
8
million
INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS
Prestigious universities have been
operating overseas campuses for many
years, but as this trend expanded, some
institutions found it difficult to navigate
the logistical, political, and cost challenges
involved in planting their flags on foreign
soil. In recent years, the trend has
been toward partnerships with existing
universities as a way to attract students
in those countries. The trend is also
becoming multi-directional. For instance,
Tsinghua University of Beijing – known as
the “MIT of China”– has worked with the
University of Washington in the U.S. to
start a graduate institute near Seattle that
can accommodate up to 3,000 students.
SUSTAINABILITY
Students are concerned about the
environment, and so universities are as well.
Advancement of Sustainability in Higher
Education (AASHE) reports that at least
330 U.S. institutions feature solar power
that collectively generate about 250,000
kilowatts. In addition, colleges increasingly
look to adaptive reuse of older buildings
rather than taking the un-ecological
approach of demolition and replacement.
As noted by the World Economic Forum,
consumers (and students alike) around
the globe are increasingly concerned with
a broad range of issues that impact their
decisions: impact on environment, carbon
footprint, labour standards, animal welfare,
and school’s ethical trade track record.
Growing universities erect
glitzy libraries, housing
blocks, and research
facilities to accommodate
new students; shrinking
ones do so in an effort to
turn the tide.
- The Economist, Feb 23, 2017
DAVID C. SMITH
Senior Research Director
Global Occupier Services
Americas
CRAIG CASSELL
Executive Managing Director
Global Leader
Education Sector
- An excerpt from World Economic
Forum’s Future of Jobs Report (2016)
DISRUPTION
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