Speaking at The Capitol in Melbourne recently, RMIT Vice-Chancellor and President, Martin Bean CBE, said today’s 15-year-olds would navigate 17 different employers and five different careers in their lifetime and declared knowledge as currency.
“We’re in a new world where we need to learn across our lifetime and develop our own knowledge portfolio that represents our whole self to the world of work,” he said.
Oxford University recently stated that 50% of today’s jobs were at risk of replacement in the next 20 years. Reports from Deloitte and PWC also show two out of three jobs would be soft skills intensive by 2030, with workers expected to perform tasks that automation could not replicate.
To discuss the implications of this, educators, technologists, and educational leaders from across Australia recently converged at CanvasCon in Sydney. At the event, they share how the latest developments in education technology are making teaching and learning easier and better.
Since implementing Canvas in 2017-8, RMIT has had many requests from staff about improving aspects of the content authoring experience, such as codeless styling and instant application of templates.
These requests prompted a review of a wide variety of solutions and the in-house development of a custom authoring tool called Emble.
Below, an RMIT spokesperson told The Educator how the Institute is giving its students the confidence, knowledge, skills and connections they need to succeed as industry-ready, lifelong learners in an ever-changing world.
“As industry demands new and rapidly evolving skills; as digitalisation and automation create new challenges and opportunities; and as the popularity of new programs, micro-credentials, short courses and online learning continues to grow, we understand how to shift, adapt, evolve and respond,” the spokesperson said.
“Central to this, the spokesperson said, is the Institute’s focus on technology, which has been part of RMIT’s identity for more than 130 years.
“We’re committed to learning and embedding leading technology within our own operations, not only for student benefit, but to enhance our capability and productivity,” the spokesperson said.
“We’re particularly excited about the growth of our RMIT Creds, a pioneering micro-credential program for students, and the RMIT Online Future Skills portfolio.”
At the heart of this digital credentials initiative is meaningful collaboration with industry to deliver practical outcomes for the workplace, economy and society, the spokesperson said.
“More than 50 leading employers and industry organisations have helped build an ecosystem which encompasses people, product, technology, systems and most importantly, new ways of working,” the spokesperson said.
“We know our focus on and commitment to technology are helping educate our students for the jobs that exist today, prepare for jobs that may not exist yet and adapt in a world where change is a constant.”