The need for #ReSkill & #Upskill in a post #COVID era

Authored by Bhanu Arora, Vice President - Corporate Affairs & Communication, Metro Cash & Carry India

I recently was trying to recall as to what is the original objective of taking education? Isn’t it to pass on the knowledge and skills for benefit and use at a later time.

My father says in his era he used to study under street lights for various reasons, there was not much accessibility to modern lighting, coaching institutes, specialized fields of studies so on and so forth. Then comes an era when I was studying there was no such worry of above concerns at least however, there was definite absence of resources to refer such as a library to access the world’s knowledge. Besides my school or college the nearest library was over 15 kilometers from my house.

Circa 2020, my son dexterous with a time lapse of less than a minute to find the abundance of knowledge available across the world available to him also through his smart phone. There is a wealth of data and information at the fingertips and students should have a strong focus on learning how to research and analyse this information rather than trying to boost their memories. 

This can all be achieved by learning how to master the use of a computer or a smart phone. A computer can be an amazing research hub. With the world’s knowledge searchable via many search engines, there is little excuse to not know basic facts about the world. Educators should upskill their students to be able to fully utilise this tool by effectively using this method of communication and teach them how to type to do that efficiently. As educators, inspire students to learn and dream about what is achievable.

The future learning intends to evolve with technological advances, and embrace the approach of personalized quality learning. This will facilitate the concept of global collaboration and individualized learning with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
I have been groomed with a thought to multitask with everything going on around me. The thought germinated with a seed “Jack of all trades and master of one”; which clearly tells us that a person needs to have sound knowledge of their elected disciplines, but should also inculcate the basic ideas of other disciplines. However, no one told us how to achieve this?

With the advent of ICT in education, scale, and personalization learning is now boundless.  To clear the clutter, E-Learning is the key. Online learning enables us to expand our horizons through cross border platforms. Content can be curated as per the level of the learner in these platforms, which give personalized or tailored learning experiences.

Through the use of online and E-learning methodology, students are now able to access online resources to get assistance on demand beyond the physical reach of their teacher. Technology can also extend education in another way. Distant learning enables to mix study, work and family duties, and maintain adequate word life and education balance.
Physical presence is now not required, so learning becomes affordable in any corner of the world. E-learning is also much more affordable for people with limited budget.
So how does the future of education looks like? Traveling classrooms and the real world environment will be a new campus:
You are no longer dependent upon a college or school to study.

There is no pressure from peers or schools to perform Limitless learning with practical illustrations will help you to face the world to handle real challenges That clearly means education goes beyond class 12 or degree course as the finish line or a graduation day is moved. Now you can access teachers, resources, and assignments via the web whenever and wherever provided you have an internet connection. The bottom-line you can spend more time practicing a concept specializing into a field of your choice at your own pace.

Now my question is with a world of readily searchable knowledge at our fingertips, do we need to memorize the facts any more. In fact, many things we traditionally learned at school might start to feel a little pointless in the digital age: handwriting, tables, spelling, grammar, foreign languages so and so forth has been made simpler by millions of DIY apps on google, ios and android.

What is now required is to develop a skill set to interpret petabytes of data and search results being produced, critically assess the quality and veracity of information and make practical judgements about how to use that, and we’ll need to think creatively to come up with solutions to increasingly complex global problems.

With this we may be able to solve some other critical issues on:

Absence of Entrepreneurship development:

Cast reservation and paid seats:

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