21st Century Work: Career-Readiness Isn’t What It Used To Be
by Terry Heick
The way we think about work is changing.
Thinking of jobs, careers, and pay is–by some–being replaced with the idea of work, relationships, and meaning. Technology and the resulting connectivity are a part of this. In the 21st century, we all have personal “brands”–digital footprints that precede and proceed us, leaving a record of our interactions and ideas for anyone to see.
“Globalization”–as nebulous a term as it is–plays a factor here as well. In some regions, trends of nationalism are giving way to a more holistic view of things. Nations are being replaced by people, if for no other reasons than the sheer visibility of those people through digital and social media, while “nations” are nowhere to be seen.
Other factors are at work here as well, including a perceivable shift away from unchecked economic greed, waste, and corporate thinking, the role of data in everything we do, the concept of time and place in our work, and more. The end result is a shift in the way we think about work in the 21st century, something future of work thinker Ayelet Baron explores in the following presentation.
No matter how accurate these ideas, the concept of career-readiness is changing because how we live and work is changing. Traditionally, this conversation is reduced to a “characteristics of” dialogue, where we promote ideas like collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking. The more precise we can be as educators in our views of what work is actually becoming, the better we can prepare students for that always-changing reality.
You can read more of Ayelet’s thinking on her website.
21st Century Work: Career-Readiness Isn’t What It Used To Be
Are You Ready for the Future of Work? from Ayelet Baron; image attribution Ayelet Baron, Simplifying Work; 21st Century Work: Career-Readiness Isn’t What It Used To Be