Typically, we perceive the sole actors of the education equation to be teachers and students, whether the students are children in elementary schools or young people in high school and college. These students go to school to acquire knowledge and develop social skills all in the name of getting a job. For decades, education systems played a role in preparing us for a defined and known set of jobs. The social environment was a physical one where people learned together in a real space.

The pandemic has shifted our social environment to a virtual space where people spend more time than ever before using their electronic devices and applications to socialize. This virtual space requires another definition of rules, standards, and policies for the social environment where our perception can be ambiguous for certain reasons. While schools continue to prepare young people for traditional jobs, there is a good chance many of these positions will change or even become obsolete in 10 years. Exponential technologies are helping us in many ways, but at the same time, they are shaping a new future of work with jobs not yet defined or imagined today.

Unfortunately, the education system as a whole has not yet adopted or developed a new mainstream program that's more aligned with the future of work, where the dominance of exponential technologies and social platforms will likely be the main feature. For those who are not yet familiar with the exponential technologies universe, I will give some examples for a general perspective. These technologies — such as artificial intelligence, robotics, drones, 3D printing, virtual reality, nanotechnology and more — are rapidly increasing their efficiency and impact in our businesses and lives.

The question now is: What does the future of education look like? A more pressing question: What can we do as nonprofit leaders to make a positive impact on this? Being an assistant professor in artificial intelligence, and at the same time an executive AI advisor for the private sector, often invites me to think deeply about the future of work and, by consequence, the future of education. As a mom, mentor and coach, I’m worried our education system might not be prepared to shift rapidly enough to teach our children the needs of this future of work.

Read the full article about education system by Dr. Lobna Karoui at Forbes.