STEM should be STEAMED

New report calls for broader skills drive for future of work.

A new report by Regional Australia Institute and NBN calls for the formal integration of soft skills development into future education strategies, expanding the current narrow focus on STEM.

The report calls for science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) to be expanded to STEAMED – which captures those disciplines as well as entrepreneurship, art and design.

“The future of work offers a heady mixture of excitement and promise as new ways of working become embedded in the economy, along with the worry of how and if each of us can make our way in a rapidly changing work landscape,” the report’s authors said.

“To give our kids the best chance of success in the future job market, we need to give them the best chance to develop the technical and personal skills they need to succeed.”

Rather than it being about creating skills that will help the next generation of workers to stay ahead of technology that threatens to take traditional jobs, the authors believed it was necessary to develop a mix of skills that provide an “opportunity to race ahead with technology”.

This is similar to the current push around augmented intelligence – reframing the discussion around opportunities for technology to enhance ways of working, rather than to displace workers from entire industries.

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