The lifelong learning generation

Like most parents, I worry about what career advice to give my kids.

I used to say: do a bachelor’s in something numerate (both of mine are good at STEM), then plan on a master’s in business. But in an AI world, I’m not sure that’s the right advice.

So I started reading Daniel Susskind’s “What Should My Children Do?”

I haven’t finished it yet, so I won’t comment on the substance.

But this chart stopped me dead.

It shows the share of 18-24 year olds, by country, who expect to retrain many times during their careers. There is a vast gap between “old money” economies like Germany, France and the UK and “new money” markets like China, Indonesia and Brazil.

The one thing I am certain of when I advise my kids is that they need to be flexible and treat lifelong learning as a given. So the fact that so few young people in Germany, France and the UK expect to retrain is, to me, shocking.

We need to start talking about this shift openly: in schools, in companies, in government, at the dinner table. The days of studying for a clear and linear career path are clearly over. Lifelong learning has to become something people expect and actually do.

The countries at the top of this chart already know that. The rest of us need to wake up!

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Originally posted on LinkedIn.