When we look three generations back, we almost always find an illiterate great-grandparent, a grandparent who could read and write, and at least one parent who attended college.
Parents' greatest wish was for their children to study more than they had, so they could find lighter work than the manual labor of farms or factories.
In the mindset of twenty years ago, going to college was a guarantee of a good job, a good salary, and a stable life.
That guarantee no longer exists. A college degree, even though it grants a credential that qualifies graduates for the job market, no longer teaches what is truly necessary at the pace it should.
Undergraduate programs of four or five years, or even postgraduate and MBA programs of two years, are far too lengthy compared to the speed at which the market changes.
Less than two years, for example, was all it took for Loft to become a billion-dollar company. It is revolutionizing the real estate market, yet no engineering or architecture school is ready to teach what it does.
And by the time institutions develop the content, train the faculty, and include it in their curricula, other companies will have already emerged with new business models and new technologies.
Today's education needs to be fast, deliver the best content for the moment, and be practical. In other words, it must theorize best practices at an incredible speed and replicate them with the same efficiency.
Furthermore, it is clear that education is not something static — something you do once and that's it. The question “what did you graduate in?” no longer has a meaningful answer. You will never be fully educated, because you will always be in the process of learning through new courses.
And why will you keep taking new courses? Because if you don't, you will join the “class of useless people“, as Yuval Harari, author of the bestsellers Sapiens and Homo Deus, put it.
Remember when listing Windows 95 proficiency on your résumé was considered a professional differentiator? What use is that knowledge today?
Everyone needs to evolve and keep learning in order to remain relevant.
Will thousands of professions cease to exist? Yes.
But professionals who are able to learn — and teach — about artificial intelligence, new business models, and new theories emerging from innovative companies will become increasingly indispensable.
All of these topics will be discussed at the EdTech Conference, the largest event in Latin America focused on innovations in the education sector.
>> I Want to Attend the EdTech Conference 2020 <<
Just like individuals, schools and universities must keep pace with market evolution in order to remain relevant.
That is why more than 3,000 people will be present at this fourth edition of the EdTech Conference