Workers of the Future

“The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

A little over 12 months ago, when Victoria’s first lockdown was announced, there was a flurry of activity for the IT team as we scrambled to work out how to run a school remotely. This year, when it seemed that history may well repeat itself with another long lockdown, we were ‘business as usual’. Where the initial rapid adaptation to remote learning and work were overwhelming, now it just all seems so ‘normal’.  Never in my life have I been aware of such a rapid period of change with such broad impact; things that seemed impossible are now taken for granted. 

Students have mostly returned to normal, but the situation is different for many workers, some of whom will never return to a traditional workplace on a full time basis. That change will, of course, impact our students eventually, as when they reach working age, they will enter a very different environment than we experienced.

Traditionally, schools have focused on providing the technical skills that students will need in Information Technology -  suddenly, that is the easy part! The great challenge is in providing our students with the social and emotional tools required to navigate and thrive in this online world. 

Workers of the future will need to be socially proficient as well as technically skillful with technology.  Like the generations before them, they require the capacity to communicate with nuance, to relate, to empathise and to inspire others, but they will need to be able to do all of this remotely in an online environment. They also need to make intelligent decisions about the way their time online also impacts their own wellbeing and relationships. The era of digital citizenship has truly arrived. 

As ever, we at BHS look forward to adapting to this challenge in order to provide the best educational outcomes for all our students. 

Jack Marshall

ICT Coordinator (and Parent)