Barrista vs Barrister: What will the next generation become?

Not much black box thinking going on here.

When I heard the government were going to relinquish A Level examinations this year and create some kind of predicted algorithm to base results on, I was rather dumbfounded. Could they really get this right?

It turns out that despite having months to sort this out and time immemorial for planning major world events that might disrupt examinations, they’ve been as shambolic as ever…

Yet, if we look at the wider picture, the Blairite philosophy of “Education, Education, Education” and shoving a University place down everyone’s throat should have been put to bed by now.

Indeed, some of those who haven’t had the grades they were after on Thursday may well have the last laugh; without being saddled in a mountain of debt and institutionalised to “be like everyone else”.

We live in a digital global economy, with ever expanding AI that will make much of our professions obsolete (Read Richard Susskind’s The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts) and yet we are doing very little as a nation to adapt to this.

In turn, most of the degrees  that we hold in high esteem will become worthless and the education that precedes them will have to change in equal measure or simply follow suit.

Whilst the idea of socialising and “finding oneself” at Uni remains all the rage, what really needs to happen is for society to comprehensively evaluate the value of most degrees and how graduates fair in the ever changing jobs market.

Next time you’re in a coffee shop, ask your Barrista what they trained in. You may well be surprised.

RG x

Written by admin99