Skills and competencies will drive the future rather than degrees as old jobs have begun to vanish due to disruptive innovation and technology, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Sunday.
Pradhan was addressing a conference here ahead of the third G20 Education Working Group meeting later this week.
“Skills and competencies will drive the future rather than degrees. There will be a constant competition between God gifted human intelligence and Artificial Intelligence (AI),” Pradhan said in the keynote address at the conference themed ‘Deep Tech with a Focus on Advanced Technology in Future of Work.’
“Old jobs are vanishing due to disruptive innovation and technology. New jobs are emerging but our workforce needs continuous skilling, reskilling and upskilling. Hence, we must think of new approaches to prepare youth for future jobs,” he added.
On China, the production centre of the globe at present, Pradhan said “material” is not going to influence the future of the civilisation. “Human nature is going to influence the human future.”
The minister said that the 21st century will be knowledge-based and technology-driven.
“Guided by its civilisational ethos and as a natural hub of talent, captive market and resources, India is going to play a leading role in fulfilling the global aspirations of the 21st century,” he asserted.
“Internet, mobility and global connectivity provides us with an opportunity to think about global requirements. We have to come together to convert this opportunity for India’s youth as well as for those belonging to the Global South,” he said.
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During the conference, industry, academia, startup ecosystem and other stakeholders will brainstorm on reimagining the skilling ecosystem, creating future-ready global citizens, and making India a global hub of skilled manpower.
Foundation literacy and numeracy, tech-enabled learning, future of work and research collaboration are among the priority areas for deliberations during the third G20 Education Working Group meeting scheduled from April 27 to 29.
During the meeting, there would be official-level deliberations on the four identified priority areas — foundational literacy and numeracy, tech-enabled learning, future of work and research collaboration.
A conference on “deep tech” and “transforming logistics for coastal economies”, a workshop on future of work and skill architecture, a seminar on building capacities for lifelong learning and an exhibition on “future of work” are part of the precursor events which will be held ahead of the meet.
The first meeting of the G20 Education Working Group was held in Chennai earlier this year, followed by a second meet in Amritsar last month. There would be three supplementary meetings of the education group before arriving at a consensus in June this year.
By Gunjan Sharma
