and How Can We Prepare our Children?
by Dennis Kambeitz
The coming decade will be defined by the largest workforce transition in the history of mankind. These changes will simultaneously bring significant hardship for some segments of the population and unprecedented opportunity for others…
But what does it mean for our children?
It’s a question that is of critical importance as parents try to provide the brightest future for their children.
Throughout the last century, technological advancements have resulted in a constant evolution within the workforce. Some jobs changed, while others disappeared, and other new jobs were created.
Historically, it’s always been that way… but this time, the changes will be different.
We will see fundamental changes across virtually all industries simultaneously. Forecasts show that 45% of existing jobs will be eliminated by technology in the coming 15 years – representing a staggering 60 million jobs.
At the same time, millions of new jobs will be created. However, many of the people whose jobs disappear will find that they lack the required skills to gain employment in the new jobs – specifically they will be lacking “high-tech skills” like robotics literacy and coding.
The result will be that there will be millions of people looking for low-tech work, while millions of high-tech jobs will remain unfulfilled or taken by applicants in foreign countries.
Industries that have historically employed large numbers of low-skill labor (Transportation, Retail, Hospitality) will be the earliest to be affected and will undergo significant contraction in the number of workers they employ.
To illustrate why this will occur, consider the following;
Within the transportation industry; if we have self-driving vehicles, do we need bus drivers? Truck drivers? Taxi drivers? Those careers are scheduled for deletion over the coming decade.
Brick-and-Mortar retail stores have seen a decline in recent years with many well-known chains battling just to stay alive. The trend is expected to accelerate by 30% in 2018/2019. This is not to suggest that “retail” will disappear, but online Mega-Companies like Amazon will continue to pressure brick-and-mortar stores.
Further pressure will be applied to the retail workforce by automation such as self-checkouts, customer service robots, and warehouse robots.
Within the restaurant industry, one needs only to walk into a McDonalds restaurant to see the impact of technology. Two years ago, there would have been 4 or 5 people across the front counter. Today, there is one person and a number of touch-screen ordering stations.
Each shift requires 3-4 less people, multiplied by two shifts per day, the result is 7-8 less employment opportunities per McDonalds… across 15,000 restaurants.
That single instance of automation means that McDonalds needs 100,000 less people to run their restaurants than they did 2 years ago. If this approach works at McDonalds, is it likely that other restaurants will also adopt this approach?
Further impacting the restaurant industry is the fact that robotic chefs are starting to make their appearance in restaurants across the country.
I have a colleague that says, “when I young, my parents told me to study hard in school or I’d end up flipping burgers at the McDonalds, but even that job won’t exist in two years”.
There are a large number of other industries that will be affected, but when looking at just these examples, it’s easy to see that the pool of available “low-tech labour” will balloon over the coming decade, and the competition to land the remaining low-tech jobs becoming increasingly difficult.
But that’s not the entire picture. It’s equally important to understand that it’s not just the low-tech jobs that will be affected. Robotics, Automation and AI (artificial intelligence) will impact a broad range of jobs that haven’t historically been considered high-tech.
To understand these changes, lets project forward 5 years when we’re mid-stream in these changes.
The evening news will be filled with stories of job loss and incredible new technologies that are pushing the limits of mankind. Our education system and society will be pivoting to try to meet the increasing demand for people with strong tech skills and robotics literacy.
Now, imagine that you’re a school principal, and you’re hiring a new teacher. What kind of skills are you looking for? You already have a number of teachers in your school that can teach math, science and social studies. Where is the skill gap within your teaching team?
If you have two applicants that are more-or-less equal, and one of them has strong robotics literacy and tech skills, which applicant gets the job? The answer is clear. If you want to be a teacher, strong tech skills will move you to the front of the line.
Within the real estate industry, imagine you're trying to sell your house and you interview two realtors. One of them has a flying drone and can take a scenic fly-over video of your home. The other realtor has no drone and cannot do this. If everything else is equal between them, which realtor would you hire?
The hardware store Lowes has been testing customer service robots for 3 years (they’re already quite impressive). In 5 years, when all of their stores have these customer service robots, self-checkouts and robots in their warehouses, are you going to hire a store manager that understands these technologies or one that doesn’t? They don’t need to be a “roboticist”, but these technologies will change the work-flow and potential of a store and applicants that understand those technologies are significantly more likely to be hired.
This type of scenario will play out again and again across virtually all industries. People who are lacking strong tech skills will be at a significant disadvantage when applying for a wide range of jobs that wouldn’t traditionally be classified as “high-tech”.
When considering all this information, it points to the reality that ALL our children need stronger tech skills and robotics/coding literacy, not just our technically minded or high-achieving students.
In fact, a strong argument can be made that students who are not “gifted” when it comes to technology need this education even more than those who have a strong aptitude for engineering. The tragic irony is that students who shy away from tech education are the same ones who will end up needing it the most when the low-tech jobs disappear.
With this in mind, and a goal of ensuring that all students receive this critical education, it’s beneficial to look at what traditional educators have done in this area, and the level of success that they have seen.
The following information is the culmination of conversations with thousands of educators from across the continent, and my own personal experience - having demonstrated robotics to more than 14,000 students across all grades.
Firstly, the way that schools teach robotics and coding appeals to a very small percentage of students.
At the high school level, the number of students who are enrolled in programming courses is typically less than 10%. Robotics enrollment is worse with about 2% of boys enrolled, and the number of girls is an abysmal 0.2%
To put those numbers in perspective, consider that a school of 3,000 students will have about 30 boys learning robotics and 3 girls.
That means that 1,470 boys and 1,497 girls aren’t receiving any robotics education, at a time when the technology is starting to transform virtually all industries.
Given the low engagement levels, it’s clear that students are not interested in learning robotics at the high school level (or at least they aren’t interested in how it’s historically been taught)
When looking at the middle school enrollment, the results are slightly more encouraging at about 10% of boys and 2% of girls, but it’s still means that the vast majority of students aren’t gaining high tech skills.
Within elementary schools, interest is higher with up to 50% of boys and girls interested in learning robotics. The engagement level starts out strong in kindergarten and declines as students advance through the grades.
It’s easy for parents and teachers to assume that subjects like “coding” and “robotics” would be best left to the later years, but the data strongly indicates otherwise. If we want our students to learn robotics and coding, it’s highly beneficial to introduce it at the youngest age possible to help them build their skills and confidence.
With this historical data in mind, it’s also important to know that robotics and coding education CAN draw significantly higher interest levels from children at all ages, when it is presented in the correct fashion.
Over the past 3 year, we’ve demonstrated robotics to more than 14,000 students across all grades, and
we’ve seen extremely strong levels of engagement – 60% engagement in high schools, and an incredible 90% at the middle-school and elementary ages.
The success we’ve seen is a result of “how” we teach these subjects – with a focus on inspiration and engagement and rapidly building student confidence.
Historically, many educators have taught robotics like an engineering course, which really only appeals to engineering-minded students. This approach would be akin to wanting our students have computer literacy, but in their first exposure to computers, we try to get them interested in building a computer.
Simply put, almost nobody cares how to build a computer. Similarly, people are not largely interested in learning to build large automated robots.
If we want our children to learn about computers (and hopefully eventually learn programming), the first thing we should do is allow them to play a game on a computer. Then, when they are having fun, we can begin to help them understand the steps they need to take to play the game (first you turn on the computer and launch the software). From there we can teach them how to change the parameters of the game they are playing and so on, until they eventually learn how to manipulate the game by changing the programming.
We’ve used this strategy to successfully teach robotics and coding to thousands of children, and we’ve found that virtually everyone can have success when the steps are appropriately spaced and success is achievable… and of course, the students are inspired the correct way.
Home-schooling parents have a distinct advantage in this area, as they know their students completely. They can use their children’s personal interests to motivate them to learn technology, and we’ve helped a number of parents have success in this way.
But what happens when parents aren’t tech-savvy?
Fortunately, there are a few companies (such as RoboGarden) that are addressing coding and robotics education in innovative ways that can be implemented within a home-school structure - even by non-technically inclined parents.
Some specific solutions for home-schooling parents will be suggested in part two of this article next month.
EDITORS NOTE:
We have arranged for Dennis Kambeitz, the author of this article and a global leader in tech education, to do a webinar exclusively for the HERD community.
In the webinar, Dennis will provide additional information about the changes that will occur in the workforce and provide some specific information on top resources for home-schooling parents to be able to deliver stronger technical education for their children.
People who have heard Dennis’s presentations have described them as “something that all educators need to hear” and “something that will change the entire way you view the future”.
The Webinar will take place on September 12th at 3:00PM Eastern.
Space is limited, so sign up early to avoid disappointment.
Click HERE to Register for the Webinar
Dennis has also helped hundreds of schools implement successful robotics and coding programs across North America and is recognized as a thought leader in understanding the impact that technology will have on the workforce, and how we can best prepare our students.
He is regularly invited to speak at education conferences as a session expert and keynote speaker, and universities and school districts have brought him in to train their professors and educators.
Website: robots.education Email: dennis@robots.education Phone: (403) 860-2715
by Dennis Kambeitz
The coming decade will be defined by the largest workforce transition in the history of mankind. These changes will simultaneously bring significant hardship for some segments of the population and unprecedented opportunity for others…
But what does it mean for our children?
It’s a question that is of critical importance as parents try to provide the brightest future for their children.
Throughout the last century, technological advancements have resulted in a constant evolution within the workforce. Some jobs changed, while others disappeared, and other new jobs were created.
Historically, it’s always been that way… but this time, the changes will be different.
We will see fundamental changes across virtually all industries simultaneously. Forecasts show that 45% of existing jobs will be eliminated by technology in the coming 15 years – representing a staggering 60 million jobs.
At the same time, millions of new jobs will be created. However, many of the people whose jobs disappear will find that they lack the required skills to gain employment in the new jobs – specifically they will be lacking “high-tech skills” like robotics literacy and coding.
The result will be that there will be millions of people looking for low-tech work, while millions of high-tech jobs will remain unfulfilled or taken by applicants in foreign countries.
Industries that have historically employed large numbers of low-skill labor (Transportation, Retail, Hospitality) will be the earliest to be affected and will undergo significant contraction in the number of workers they employ.
To illustrate why this will occur, consider the following;
Within the transportation industry; if we have self-driving vehicles, do we need bus drivers? Truck drivers? Taxi drivers? Those careers are scheduled for deletion over the coming decade.
Brick-and-Mortar retail stores have seen a decline in recent years with many well-known chains battling just to stay alive. The trend is expected to accelerate by 30% in 2018/2019. This is not to suggest that “retail” will disappear, but online Mega-Companies like Amazon will continue to pressure brick-and-mortar stores.
Further pressure will be applied to the retail workforce by automation such as self-checkouts, customer service robots, and warehouse robots.
Within the restaurant industry, one needs only to walk into a McDonalds restaurant to see the impact of technology. Two years ago, there would have been 4 or 5 people across the front counter. Today, there is one person and a number of touch-screen ordering stations.
Each shift requires 3-4 less people, multiplied by two shifts per day, the result is 7-8 less employment opportunities per McDonalds… across 15,000 restaurants.
That single instance of automation means that McDonalds needs 100,000 less people to run their restaurants than they did 2 years ago. If this approach works at McDonalds, is it likely that other restaurants will also adopt this approach?
Further impacting the restaurant industry is the fact that robotic chefs are starting to make their appearance in restaurants across the country.
I have a colleague that says, “when I young, my parents told me to study hard in school or I’d end up flipping burgers at the McDonalds, but even that job won’t exist in two years”.
There are a large number of other industries that will be affected, but when looking at just these examples, it’s easy to see that the pool of available “low-tech labour” will balloon over the coming decade, and the competition to land the remaining low-tech jobs becoming increasingly difficult.
But that’s not the entire picture. It’s equally important to understand that it’s not just the low-tech jobs that will be affected. Robotics, Automation and AI (artificial intelligence) will impact a broad range of jobs that haven’t historically been considered high-tech.
To understand these changes, lets project forward 5 years when we’re mid-stream in these changes.
The evening news will be filled with stories of job loss and incredible new technologies that are pushing the limits of mankind. Our education system and society will be pivoting to try to meet the increasing demand for people with strong tech skills and robotics literacy.
Now, imagine that you’re a school principal, and you’re hiring a new teacher. What kind of skills are you looking for? You already have a number of teachers in your school that can teach math, science and social studies. Where is the skill gap within your teaching team?
If you have two applicants that are more-or-less equal, and one of them has strong robotics literacy and tech skills, which applicant gets the job? The answer is clear. If you want to be a teacher, strong tech skills will move you to the front of the line.
Within the real estate industry, imagine you're trying to sell your house and you interview two realtors. One of them has a flying drone and can take a scenic fly-over video of your home. The other realtor has no drone and cannot do this. If everything else is equal between them, which realtor would you hire?
The hardware store Lowes has been testing customer service robots for 3 years (they’re already quite impressive). In 5 years, when all of their stores have these customer service robots, self-checkouts and robots in their warehouses, are you going to hire a store manager that understands these technologies or one that doesn’t? They don’t need to be a “roboticist”, but these technologies will change the work-flow and potential of a store and applicants that understand those technologies are significantly more likely to be hired.
This type of scenario will play out again and again across virtually all industries. People who are lacking strong tech skills will be at a significant disadvantage when applying for a wide range of jobs that wouldn’t traditionally be classified as “high-tech”.
When considering all this information, it points to the reality that ALL our children need stronger tech skills and robotics/coding literacy, not just our technically minded or high-achieving students.
In fact, a strong argument can be made that students who are not “gifted” when it comes to technology need this education even more than those who have a strong aptitude for engineering. The tragic irony is that students who shy away from tech education are the same ones who will end up needing it the most when the low-tech jobs disappear.
With this in mind, and a goal of ensuring that all students receive this critical education, it’s beneficial to look at what traditional educators have done in this area, and the level of success that they have seen.
The following information is the culmination of conversations with thousands of educators from across the continent, and my own personal experience - having demonstrated robotics to more than 14,000 students across all grades.
Firstly, the way that schools teach robotics and coding appeals to a very small percentage of students.
At the high school level, the number of students who are enrolled in programming courses is typically less than 10%. Robotics enrollment is worse with about 2% of boys enrolled, and the number of girls is an abysmal 0.2%
To put those numbers in perspective, consider that a school of 3,000 students will have about 30 boys learning robotics and 3 girls.
That means that 1,470 boys and 1,497 girls aren’t receiving any robotics education, at a time when the technology is starting to transform virtually all industries.
Given the low engagement levels, it’s clear that students are not interested in learning robotics at the high school level (or at least they aren’t interested in how it’s historically been taught)
When looking at the middle school enrollment, the results are slightly more encouraging at about 10% of boys and 2% of girls, but it’s still means that the vast majority of students aren’t gaining high tech skills.
Within elementary schools, interest is higher with up to 50% of boys and girls interested in learning robotics. The engagement level starts out strong in kindergarten and declines as students advance through the grades.
It’s easy for parents and teachers to assume that subjects like “coding” and “robotics” would be best left to the later years, but the data strongly indicates otherwise. If we want our students to learn robotics and coding, it’s highly beneficial to introduce it at the youngest age possible to help them build their skills and confidence.
With this historical data in mind, it’s also important to know that robotics and coding education CAN draw significantly higher interest levels from children at all ages, when it is presented in the correct fashion.
Over the past 3 year, we’ve demonstrated robotics to more than 14,000 students across all grades, and
we’ve seen extremely strong levels of engagement – 60% engagement in high schools, and an incredible 90% at the middle-school and elementary ages.
The success we’ve seen is a result of “how” we teach these subjects – with a focus on inspiration and engagement and rapidly building student confidence.
Historically, many educators have taught robotics like an engineering course, which really only appeals to engineering-minded students. This approach would be akin to wanting our students have computer literacy, but in their first exposure to computers, we try to get them interested in building a computer.
Simply put, almost nobody cares how to build a computer. Similarly, people are not largely interested in learning to build large automated robots.
If we want our children to learn about computers (and hopefully eventually learn programming), the first thing we should do is allow them to play a game on a computer. Then, when they are having fun, we can begin to help them understand the steps they need to take to play the game (first you turn on the computer and launch the software). From there we can teach them how to change the parameters of the game they are playing and so on, until they eventually learn how to manipulate the game by changing the programming.
We’ve used this strategy to successfully teach robotics and coding to thousands of children, and we’ve found that virtually everyone can have success when the steps are appropriately spaced and success is achievable… and of course, the students are inspired the correct way.
Home-schooling parents have a distinct advantage in this area, as they know their students completely. They can use their children’s personal interests to motivate them to learn technology, and we’ve helped a number of parents have success in this way.
But what happens when parents aren’t tech-savvy?
Fortunately, there are a few companies (such as RoboGarden) that are addressing coding and robotics education in innovative ways that can be implemented within a home-school structure - even by non-technically inclined parents.
Some specific solutions for home-schooling parents will be suggested in part two of this article next month.
EDITORS NOTE:
We have arranged for Dennis Kambeitz, the author of this article and a global leader in tech education, to do a webinar exclusively for the HERD community.
In the webinar, Dennis will provide additional information about the changes that will occur in the workforce and provide some specific information on top resources for home-schooling parents to be able to deliver stronger technical education for their children.
People who have heard Dennis’s presentations have described them as “something that all educators need to hear” and “something that will change the entire way you view the future”.
The Webinar will take place on September 12th at 3:00PM Eastern.
Space is limited, so sign up early to avoid disappointment.
Click HERE to Register for the Webinar
Dennis has also helped hundreds of schools implement successful robotics and coding programs across North America and is recognized as a thought leader in understanding the impact that technology will have on the workforce, and how we can best prepare our students.
He is regularly invited to speak at education conferences as a session expert and keynote speaker, and universities and school districts have brought him in to train their professors and educators.
Website: robots.education Email: dennis@robots.education Phone: (403) 860-2715
