The adoption of new technologies, along with COVID-19's impact on the global economy and various industries, has created greater demand for jobs that require select technical, industrial and business skills.
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The education sector has had to deal with some of the major impact of the on-going coronavirus pandemic. The sector had to combat the challenges of changing from offline to online mode of education, almost overnight. Additionally colleges and universities had to make sure that their students were equipped with the right tools to face the evolving work place of the future. While the pandemic and the total closure of education institutes affected daily functioning of conducting classes, teachers and educators across the country pivoted as per new protocols and made the most of the new online learning experience. The evolution in technology also played a pivotal role in shaping the education 4.0 of our country and opened new horizons for teachers and students alike. However, while the education landscape changed overnight for students, businesses and large corporates also had to change their current working landscape to run business as usual. This gave rise to the need for preparing the future workforce while they complete the last leg of their education. A recent World Economic Forum report found that more than 42 percent of all jobs will change significantly by 2022, placing greater emphasis on skills such as analytics, design thinking and complex problem-solving as the future of workspaces is rapidly evolving. The adoption of new technologies, along with COVID-19’s impact on the global economy and various industries, has created greater demand for jobs that require select technical, industrial and business skills. Hence, it becomes imperative for educational institutes especially B-schools to provide students with the right skills and knowledge in order to prepare them as an active and contributing member of the future workforce. Some of the contributing factors that will help students as well companies prepare for the road ahead are as follows:[This article has been reproduced with permission from Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research (WeSchool)]