Preparing 21st Century Teachers for Teach Less, Learn More (TLLM) Pedagogies

Higher Education In The 4Th Industrial Age

There is a storm of change coming our way. The discourse by policy makers, industry leaders and academics in higher education often centre around the impact of the 4^th industrial revolution (4^th IR) on the world of education and employment - how artificial intelligence, advancements in robotics, virtual reality, cloud technology, big data, the internet of things and other technologies will engulf human creation, human creativity and the future of employment (Park, 2016). The fusion of technologies and the blurring of the lines between the biological, digital and physical aspects of life will likely transform the way we work, learn, and live. The 4^th IR is also predicted to transform the work environment from tasks based learning to the human centred approach. Jobs will demand social intelligence, as much as IQ and there will be high job mobility across different sectors, in different countries. Research in the past 35 years has shown that, there is a steep decline in number of jobs where levels of social and communication skills are unimportant (Gill & Group, 2019b). By far, the greatest growth has been in jobs requiring high social skills, because, interpersonal asset is the most prized factor for occupations and career highest in demand in our current economic model where creative cooperations will create multiplier of wealth. The spectre of a significant percentage of the population losing their jobs in the 4^th industrial age raises more debates about the preparedness level of university graduates to face a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambigious (VUCA) world (Gill & Group, 2019a). Today, many parents and students still focus on higher education programmes that will help them secure jobs, but such jobs may not exist in the future. The Institute of the Future argues that instead of focusing on future jobs, students in institutions of higher learning must look to develop future work skills - proficiencies and abilities required across different jobs and work settings.