

Reinvention of education system for digital age is crucial

Mark Eggleton

This content is produced by The Australian Financial Review in commercial partnership with the Australian Computer Society (ACS)

Australia needs to reinvent its education systems for the digital age and this is not just about adding a few more STEM courses in schools or teaching every child how to code. This was the general consensus among participants at the recent Future of Jobs roundtable co-hosted by The Australian Financial Review and the Australian Computer Society (ACS).

Yet while business and government continue to make these grand proclamations about reinventing education, roundtable participant Greg Miller wondered aloud whether he has made a dent in furthering the future of education in eight years of working with education ministers as well schools at all levels.

Avanade Australia's Sandy Abrahams stressed the importance of continuous learning for people already in the workforce. Supplied

Miller, who is the director and co-founder of analytics firm Faethm, said while Australia had an array of STEM programmes in schools, he believed only about 10 per cent of students were really gaining any long-term benefit.

Part of the problem was schools might have a digital curriculum which had taken a long time to formulate but it was a formal course. Miller said while it might be great a school offered a robotics class, the sad fact was a specialised class missed the point. He said it was great for the 10 per cent who loved technology but STEM learning was "barely scratching the surface" when it came to the other 90 per cent of students.


Miller said the digital curriculum needed to be embedded "in the English class, in the maths class and in the science class".

"It should be embedded in everything they do and we're nowhere near that curriculum yet," Miller said.

Miller's point was also raised in a recent speech delivered in the United States by International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde who said, "all countries need to reinvent their education systems for the digital age".

"This is not just about adding a few more coding lessons. It is about fostering critical thinking, independent problem-solving, and lifelong learning that can help people adapt to change. It is about investing in human capital," Lagarde said.

Lagarde also said the digital economy was putting further pressure on those workers who were less well equipped to compete – whether in advanced, emerging or developing economies.

It was a point raised by ANZ's general manager of digital transformation and performance, Jennifer Scott, who mentioned the dangers of a bifurcated society.

She worried that an already stratified society might be become more so if educational opportunities were not presented equally to all.

Scott warned of continual bifurcation if the people furthest away from technology now, such as many service and vocational trades, fall further behind and the impact that might have on their children.


Unprepared for lifelong learning

For Avanade Australia's executive head of managed services, Sandy Abrahams, the key was ensuring Australia's children have "the qualities they will need to continue to learn in the future".

She said understanding technology was one aspect but also having the mindset to understand and solve problems. Moreover, she emphasised the importance of continuous learning for people already in the workforce.

"People understand if they don't continue to learn or rotate skills, they might be left without a job, especially when the full impact of artificial intelligence and automation work their way further into workplaces."

Dayle Stevens, AGL Energy's divisional chief information officer, PT3 and growth, suggested education was clearly going to change and she was heartened by what she was seeing already with her own children.

"It is not just all about reading, writing and arithmetic. It is about leadership skills and collaboration skills, communication and creativity. It is actually quite innovative, I think, and it's about keeping people's options open. Keeping them interested and helping people understand that what you learn now isn't the end product. It's about being able to adapt, deal with ambiguity and be curious about what is happening in the world so that you can continuously adapt yourself to whatever the future of work might be," Stevens said.

Fellow participant Robert Hillard, managing partner consulting at Deloitte Australia, highlighted that the huge change in education would be felt deeply as we transition to a system more befitting the digital age.

He said one of the tensions in our modern education system was its origins in an industrial age and that it had not actually changed as yet.


"Our current system was designed to create obedient workers for a defined career path and one of the reasons why there is a natural tension at the moment in how much we invest [in education] is there's a natural inefficiency in the sector. If you can address the inefficiency in education and create greater flexibility, you immediately free up a whole lot of resources to be applied in different ways," Hillard said.

One way to better apply resources was to future-proof the workforce by making a commitment to lifelong learning which goes well beyond schools and into tertiary and vocational learning.

Unfortunately, most organisations' corporate learning and development teams are completely understaffed, so it is the universities and TAFE colleges who will bear the burden. Yet they do not have the capabilities as they are still geared for vocational training or multiple-year degrees.

For Miller, the best bet is the TAFEs and universities coming up with a curriculum that fits the skills gap that people need. But that will take a major change in how governments, educational institutions and businesses work together.

Read More

Most Viewed In Policy