Giving Compass' Take:

• In this story from Getting Smart, author Tom Vander Ark discusses how changes in the economy make it necessary for the education system to evolve. In a rapidly changing labor market, students must learn to be agile and prepare for jobs that do not even exist yet.

• How can schools teach agility? Can this skill be incorporated into existing curricula, or would must schools redesign their classes if they wish to prepare students for tomorrow's work force.

• To learn more about the future of education and jobs, click here.

Recently, Pathway 2 Tomorrow: Local Visions for America’s Future (P2T) announced the winners of its $100,000 Innovation Award for bold, transformative education solutions. One theme that emerged from among the 240 stakeholders who submitted proposals involves disrupting the traditional education pathway — redesigning the intersection between education and workforce preparation cohesively, across all segments of education, to be agile and responsive to communities and prepare students to succeed in a time of changing economic demands.

In the fall of 2017, America Succeeds released a report, Age of Agility: Education Pathways for the Future of Work, to call attention to the seismic shifts underway in education-to-employment pathways. As a society, we are in the early stages of a rapidly accelerating revolution that is bringing automation, artificial intelligence, and technology into parts of the workforce that have, until now, escaped this latest wave of disruptive change. Professional services such as bookkeeping, radiology, and legal aid are quickly joining the list of impacted industries we are more familiar with, like manufacturing, retail, hospitality, and logistics.

As the report says, “The bottom line is straightforward: if students and workers must be agile and adaptable to succeed in this new world, then the same holds true for the education system that prepares them.” In many cases, that means calling for a radical transformation of education-to-employment pathways.

Read the full article about agility in education by Tom Vander Ark at Getting Smart