Learning is a life-long commitment as we extend our working lives

Last year, the Stanford Center on Longevity announced that as many as half of today’s 5-year-olds could expect to live to 100. But even if the 100-year life is already here, are we ready for 60-year-long careers?

In a future that’s closer than some of us can fathom, many of today’s children will work and study in new types of arrangements, with the ‘work-learn-work-learn-work-learn’ trajectory a norm, not a revolution.

Powering this change are new automation technologies that will transform our economies, displace many traditional jobs and create new job roles that have yet to be imagined. And for these fluid, ever-changing times, we need a higher education ecosystem that empowers students to face life in a way that’s not just about surviving, but thriving.

It has already been predicted that the graduates of today will have 17 different jobs over their lifetime. This, in turn, will require them to be continuously upskilling, and often re-skilling. Thus, in the coming decades, universities will need to increasingly cater for students at all stages of life.

Some universities try to plan their educational programs according to the lists of potentially employable skills and attributes. Such an approach may be too narrow and simplistic. Instead, we should improve overall employability by creating T-shaped graduates – transdisciplinary people who are not scared to experiment, change, be agile and transfer what they’ve learned from one area into another.

Such boundary-spanning skills also help build self-awareness and reflection, which are the superpowers of future employees.

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Whether nursing, law or creative arts, at our uni every course aims to foster flexibility through embedded interconnected initiatives.

We empower our students to be able to find and secure jobs through career development learning programs. We support them in developing their soft skills by engaging in co-curricular and extra-curricular leadership activities. We boost their preparedness for employment through Work-Integrated Learning opportunities.