The Future Is Now: Educating Students to Thrive in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous World
Dr. Robert E. Johnson, President, Becker College
Educational malpractice is what colleges and universities are committing today when they do not adequately prepare graduates for a world that is constantly evolving and changing. Welcome to the VUCA world—Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous.
Arguably, the value of a college degree remains strong, particularly in lifetime earnings. But our collective responsibility in educating students must be to help them understand that in today’s society they must be adaptive, nimble, and entrepreneurial. We are educating young people today for jobs that do not yet exist, to solve problems we have yet to identify. Unlike past generations, our graduates must be job creators who are innovative leaders in this VUCA environment, capable of reinventing themselves throughout their professional careers and adapting to change. It is also imperative that they have a global perspective. Possessing that view is not optional; it is required in order to understand their relationship within a global society, so they can thrive as citizens of the world in a global marketplace. Colleges and universities must prepare students for this VUCA and global world so when they end their educational journey, they are well-prepared to survive and thrive on a more critical and challenging journey.
To best prepare graduates, we must commit to providing an education that ensures they are truly world ready. At Becker College, we define this as delivering to the world graduates who are prepared not just for their first job but also for their personal and professional career trajectories—graduates who can embrace possibility thinking to envision the future and make it a reality. We believe that students must develop an agile mindset to navigate unpredictability, and possess the knowledge and skills to be competitive in an ever-changing marketplace. The agile mindset has four components: divergent thinking, social and emotional intelligence, empathy, and an entrepreneurial outlook.