How to Prepare the Younger Generation for Success in an Increasingly Uncertain Future

And here it is! A very contemporary educational challenge.

Erik P.M. Vermeulen, PhD
6 min readMar 17, 2023

--

Photo courtesy of author

I received an email from the Dean’s Office last week.

The Board of the University invites you to participate in a roundtable event that will look at the future of universities and how they will be shaped over the next decade. It would be greatly appreciated if you could introduce one of the crucial topics — how to prepare students for success.

My initial reaction was to decline. Such staged events are rarely conducive to honest discussion and meaningful change. But since it was scheduled for several weeks from now, I had no good excuse to escape. At least, I couldn’t think of one.

And there is plenty of time to think about the topic and discuss it with colleagues and friends.

My first thought was to focus on the widening gap between what we teach at schools and what is needed in practice. But then I mentioned my task to a crypto enthusiast friend, and his reply was intriguing.

“Sounds like a tough assignment,” he said “You must prepare the students for a world that doesn’t exist. And that’s difficult. Impossible, even. How do you prepare someone for challenges that can’t be…

--

--