Education Sector Hotline: 10 Learning Needs for India at 2047!

This article was originally published on LinkedIn on August 18, 2022.

India’s vision of becoming a fully developed nation, an Atmanirbhar Bharat, can be fully realized if there are opportunities to study and (up)skill, job opportunities for youth, women and mature workers and focus on holistic living in co-existence with our environment. It augurs well that the NEP has seen an unprecedented allocation of 6 per cent of the GDP towards education.

To achieve this by 2047, it’s important for all stakeholders within the education eco-system (schools, colleges, vocational education, policy-makers, students & parents) to focus on:

1. Skills of the Future: Demand for jobs at all levels – young or mature, will only increase by 2047. With technological advancement, many traditional jobs may become obsolete giving way to jobs that likely don’t even exist today. When we were in college, leading jobs of today – such as “digital marketing specialist” did not even exist. This will result in an immediate and eminent demand for upskilling / re-skilling our workforce in jobs of the future. There will be a likely spurt in jobs, and need for skills in the areas of E(Environment) S (Social) and G (Governance), such as “Green Jobs” as mentioned by India’s Prime Minister recently¹. Jobs focused on sustainability, environment protection and climate change will grow as will, emerging & disruptive technologies. One of the drawbacks of our education system has been that most graduate degree programs do not really create a market-ready workforce. Vocational training, constant up-skilling in new areas will be the order of the day.
2. Metaverse: To provide quality education to India’s growing population, it will be critical to remove physical barriers, campus boundaries, and tide over logistical issues of travel, boarding, and related cost by moving universities and learning centres to the metaverse. Metaverse will not only offer an immerse and engrossed learning experience but will also overcome barriers of studying alone at home. It will also make learning fun through use of Avatars, and digital assets (such as clothes, bags, coffee and a house!) and real-life life interactions (haptics)giving it a main stream education feel. The Indian government has recently launched Polyversity- a virtual university which will have presence of multiple academic institutions². Education in Metaverse may, therefore, soon be our reality³.
3. Block-chaining Education: Recently, Maharashtra issued 100,000 plus verifiable diplomas on Polygon blockchain⁴. Use of blockchain to digitize and verify credentials and degrees will save a lot of academia and administrative time, which can be effectively utilized for serving the needs of education. This effort should be duplicated at scale.
4. Use of AI: Use of AI in learning to identify learning gaps and suggest improvements will become more mainstream for a better, customized, learning experience.
5. Personalized, on-demand Learning: Excessive demand, coupled with limited seats in quality schools and universities leave little scope for personalized experience. As demand for education and upskilling will continue to increase, learning will become more focused, personalized and customized to better train workforce of the future.
6. Learning v/s earning: Time is money! The age of long duration degree and diploma programs may soon be eclipsed with micro degrees, short term upskilling courses in the learning centres of the future. Learning centres of future may not be our traditional schools and colleges anymore. Learning centres will also need to adapt to offer variety of short, medium & long term courses to ensure adoption.
7. Focus on Holistic/Multi-disciplinary Learning: Focus on few subjects or specializations will no longer be useful. There will be a dire need to focus on variety of subjects for holistic learning experience. For instance, a student studying AI will have a limited horizon if the focus is on tech and engineering alone without understanding aspects of labor, ethics and moral issues due to use of AI.
8. Ethics and Co-Operation for safety, law and order: In addition to technical subjects, issues like ethics, morality, and safety will gain forefront both in offline and virtual world. It will be important to teach these aspects, such as how should an individual behave in an anonymous digital medium or what are the ethical standards for businesses in the Metaverse, to preserve the order of law in the world of the future.
9. Soft Skills: As tech will dominate lives, inter-personal skills and soft skills may become poor in the world of the future. There will also be a need to teach soft skills such as communication, responsible social behaviour, compassion, empathy, and leadership not only for the physical world but also for the digital world.  Research from LinkedIn⁵ shows that while courses on hard skills such as Excel, Project Management were popular, learners were also focused on courses on “Goal Setting” “Growth Mindset” & “Interpersonal Communication”
10. Heritage and Culture: As world boundaries diminish and we become global citizens, the importance of culture, religion and heritage will also need to be taught to instil a sense of belonging, lest the next generation may feel disconnected with their roots.

Authors are Aarushi Jain, Head Education Practice, Nishith Desai Associates and Aditi Jha, Legal & Public Policy Director LinkedIn. Views are personal.

¹ https://www.timesnownews.com/jobs/independence-day-2022-pm-modis-speech-calls-for-innovation-creation-of-green-jobs-article-93569051

² https://www.businesstoday.in/crypto/story/aicte-gets-office-in-the-metaverse-336627-2022-06-07#:~:text=The%20All%20India%20Council%20for,in%20India%20to%20do%20so.

³ https://hkust.edu.hk/news/research-and-innovation/hkust-launch-worlds-first-twin-campuses-metaverse

⁴ https://indianexpress-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/indianexpress.com/article/technology/crypto/msbsd-issues-100000-plus-verifiable-digital-diplomas-on-polygon-blockchain-8068644/lite/

⁵ https://www.linkedin.com/business/learning/blog/top-skills-and-courses/the-most-popular-linkedin-learning-courses

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The contents of this hotline should not be construed as legal opinion. View detailed disclaimer.