The Fourth Industrial Revolution: Are College Career Centers Ready?

Over the last couple of years I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of work and what it means for higher education, and in particular, the impact on our students and our work in college career services. 

Themes we have seen take shape through nationwide discourse in recent years...the commodification of education, concerns regarding the high cost and accessibility of college education, and deliberation around the role of education and learning in today’s society and the ROI of a college degree - I believe are part of a much (much) larger value shift.  

Zoe Baird, CEO of The Markle Foundation a nonprofit workforce development and research organization has asserted,

“As a society we are experiencing the biggest disruption in the workforce in over 100 years, since the transition from an agricultural society to an industrial society, and now from an industrial society to a digital age.”

We are on the doorstep of a new era, the digital age or as the World Economic Forum defines as The Fourth Industrial Revolution. While this new era is fueled by technology, most essentially, humanity must reside at its center.

According to Klaus Schwab the founder of the World Economic Forum, “The Fourth Industrial Revolution is about leveraging science and technology” to create a more just and humane world, serving and supporting citizens at all levels of society.

1. The first industrial revolution transitioned our society from a reliance on animal power.
2. The second industrial revolution created assembly lines and mass production.
3. The third industrial revolution brought automation and digital capabilities and connections between billions of people.
4. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is like nothing we’ve experienced before and is projected to dramatically impact and disrupt all disciplines, economies, and systems.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is characterized by a range of new technologies merging the cyber, physical, cognitive and computing worlds and will fundamentally change the way we live and work.

Like many industries, education is experiencing the beginnings of this new era and it’s surfacing new challenges, tensions as well as opportunities for us.  

How might we as career service professionals harness the changes and disruption impacting many sectors and many industries to support higher education’s role in service to society?

As we think about the future of our work -

• What important considerations are there for us in higher education as we reflect on the changing landscape of work, learning and society?
• As the work of career services continues to evolve, how might our work be impacted?
• What role might career centers play in shaping the citizens of tomorrow and as a catalyst for the workforce of tomorrow?
• What is the role of meaningful and purpose-driven work in this new digital age and what is our role to help our students discover and define this for themselves?

For those working in higher education, what shifts, new opportunities and pressures have you been seeing and experiencing?