Last week, I had a fruitful sharing about the topic of Agility and Transformation in a Disruptive Time with over 100 freshmen in the NTU Get Real Series.
A popular topic of interest was the skills that students would need to be prepared for the future, to which my response was to be forward looking, recognise the constant changes and continually upgrade themselves. In a separate activity, when asked about key attributes of transformational leaders, many students replied with innovation, which is largely aligned with my observations.
This year, we have seen significant disruptions brought about by #Covid-19. However, changes were far from uncommon even prior to the pandemic. According to the World Economic Forum, the half-life of a skill has dropped from 30 years to an average of 6 years. This holds true even for fresh graduates. The model of “learn at school” and “do at work” is no longer sustainable and constant reskilling & lifelong learning will be a way of life, while innovation will be key in staying relevant.
The freshmen’s excitement about the future was heartening, and I thoroughly enjoyed the session of mutual learning.