Future-Proofing University Graduates

Abstract

This chapter looks at the time horizon when AI would outperform humans in activities. Yet there are serious skills gaps and mismatch exist in many national economies. It is evident that there is an imbalance between the skills produced by the higher education system and the adoption of technology by businesses. Due to the unprecedented rate of change in current technological trends, it has been estimated that nearly 50% of subject knowledge acquired during the first year of a technical degree could be outdated by the time students graduate. This means that, in addition to technical and specific knowledge, students need to acquire stable core skills which are resistant to change and difficult for AI to program. These core skills relate to human characteristics such as judgment, abstraction, empathy, critical thinking, optimism, entrepreneurialism, cultural intelligence, association and system thinking: all essential abilities relevant across industry sectors.

Keywords: Abstraction, Association and System Thinking, Cognitive Abilities, Critical Thinking, Cultural Intelligence, Empathy, Entrepreneurialism, High- Level Machine Intelligence (HLMI), Judgment, Optimism, Skills Gaps and Skill Mismatch.