Hyrise Manifesto: The future of work requires the future of education

The future of work

Over the past several years, we have repeatedly heard about how the rapid changes as a result of technological advancements will lead to huge changes to the way we live, work and interact. We call this The Fourth Industrial or Digital Revolution.

While some people fear we're headed towards some sort of jobless apocalypse where automation will take our jobs, we remain optimistic. Don't get us wrong, many jobs will be lost. But new ones will take their place. And while you might not lose your job, we do guarantee the skills required to perform it will change. Fast.

The future of work is bright and full of opportunities, and we believe everybody has a space in this new digital economy. But to make this a reality one fundamental piece needs to change: our education system.

The future of education

"All children are born as artists, the problem is to remain an artist as we grow up." ~ Picasso

Our current education system is obsolete. It was designed during the industrial revolution, and has remained the same ever since. It responds to the life-cycle model: educate the young, for work during the middle years and rest in old age.

The pedagogy was designed for factory workers, trying to teach everyone to think and learn in the same way for uniform results. Unfortunately, scaling mass education comes at a cost: it stifles creativity and love of learning, and doesn't adapt to each individuals learning style and profile. Students are not being prepared to be successful participants in the real world, because their drive is not towards becoming more knowledgeable, but towards attaining superficial titles and awards.

The first fundamental change is that education should not be limited to our early life. It needs to be present throughout our entire career. In a reality where the skills required in the workplace change constantly, people will have to learn new skills multiple times in their lifetime to stay relevant.

As for the system itself, we believe it should be designed based on three pillars:

• Accessibility for every student.
  We envision a model that allows everyone the possibility to develop to their full potential and access global opportunities, regardless of their geography, background or socio-economic status.
  
  
• Personalized to each individual.
  Different minds learn at different paces and in different ways. Before the digital revolution it was hard to realise a scalable way to provide individual learning paths for each student. This is not true anymore. Education should leverage technology to adapt to the needs and learning style of each individual.
  
  
• Designed with employability in mind.
  The basis to design any educational experience should be reverse engineered from the expected or desired outcome. Education needs to deliver ROI. If, for example, the objective is to land a job, education should ensure it’s teaching the most relevant skills in the most effective way to achieve this.

This is our vision for the future of education. A model that blurs the lines between work and education, enables people around the globe access to the digital economy, and ultimately allows for better careers and lives.

At Hyrise Academy we're on a mission to turn this vision into a reality.

Want to learn how? Read Hyrise Academy: how we're turning our vision into a reality.

‍