Why Specialization in Education May Be Setting Us Up for Failure
Education and the workforce may be on a collision course because of artificial intelligence.
Over the last couple decades, education has been on a trajectory of increasing specialization in the educational experience for students. Many students are asked to declare a concentration or endorsement while in high school. Vocational, early college, and dual enrollment programs with career focuses continue to expand nationwide.
Some states are also calling for free community college, which tend to organize their learning experiences around specialized vocations that students can complete in two years or less.
While the alignment between needs of the workforce and preparation design by education institutions has largely been a synergistic relationship, this may no longer be the case.
While education systems as a whole have been slow to adopt artificial intelligence, this is not the case for many sectors of the workforce.
Mass exploration, adoption, and implementation of AI is happening sooner than anticipated and causing significant disruptions in many white collar industries like marketing, customer service, and sales.
We’re also seeing many lawsuits and strikes by workers in sectors like publication and media as they attempt to push back against rapid AI growth.
While many technical sectors such as engineering and manufacturing are currently not experiencing a similar level of disruption, the exponential rate of AI growth, coupled with innovation happening behind closed doors for technology that has not been in mainstream media like robotics, creates an environment where projecting out roles in anticipated sectors may not be possible.
So if that’s the case, do we actually believe our educational system should be encouraging our students to specialize as early as freshman year of high school?
In the latest episode of The AI Education Conversation, I make the case for why interdisciplinary learning, durable skills, ramping up communication skills like writing/reading/creation (yes it is possible in a world with gen ai tools), and spaces for self exploration/reflection are the keys to foundational preparation for our young people in our rapidly changing world.
Check out my full analysis and argument in a 15 minute listen in episode 36 of The AI Education Conversation.
Episode Show notes:
America Succeeds: Durable Skills — https://americasucceed.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/AmericaSucceeds-DurableSkills-NationalFactSheet-2021.pdf
Washington Post: Call Center disruptions from AI — https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/03/ai-customer-service-jobs/
Venturebeat: Companies experimenting with AI — https://venturebeat.com/ai/more-than-70-of-companies-are-experimenting-with-generative-ai-but-few-are-willing-to-commit-more-spending/
Pew Research: Workers with highest AI exposure risk — https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/07/26/which-u-s-workers-are-more-exposed-to-ai-on-their-jobs/
