The only thing sure in the digital and innovative world we live in today is change. Innovations take over our daily lives every day in the form of technology, robotics, new information and automation.
Everything is developing rapidly, and the Internet is becoming a bigger and bigger part of our lives (more than 3.8 billion people are using the Internet which is 40% of the world population). Processes are getting more accessible, but the way to do that gets more challenging. That’s why there is a discrepancy between a goal and ways to achieve it. This leads to a dynamic search for quality staff.
And all parents have taken on the task of preparing their children for those upcoming challenges. Just twenty years ago we couldn’t imagine where technology would be today. And the same way, we can’t predict what it will be like in another twenty.
However, what we can do is prepare our children with skills that will be useful enough for them to be more than ready for future professions.
Professions of the future
In the last few years, we can see an increasing development of information technology. The field of IT specialists is expanding to such an extent that such employees are not only in great demand but also extremely valuable. Especially in Bulgaria, there is a meager employment rate in the sector - only 2.3% are employed in a position related to information technology, compared to an average of 3.5% for EU countries.
The education system is increasingly focused on technologies and their intensive development, but it is still not enough for optimal preparation of the young ones. They, on the other side, are growing, continually facing innovations and technological challenges.
What is expected for the future of careers around the world is digitalization and automation, the need for knowledge of foreign languages, technological knowledge, analytical and engineering competencies, and much more. How to prepare our children for them?
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Encourage your child to develop different skills
The areas that will be affected by the changes taking place are diverse and suggest candidates who can focus their skills in several directions. Therefore, encourage your child to try different things, not to be afraid of mistakes, but instead to experiment with the unknown.
Only this way will your child be able to join the dynamic changes and more easily expand the worldview, the skills, knowledge and experience. Adaptation to technological and digital innovations would be much easier if the child's mind is prepared to always be open to the different, to the new and the non-conventional.
To stimulate the development of various skills, you can enrol your child in courses for solving logical problems, learning a foreign language, sports, chess or other.
2. Provoke interactivity
Computer systems, animations, data management and information technology, are part of everything that will be at the heart of the transition to automation and the future of the professions.
That is why children need to prepare that interactivity will be essential for them. The complex development of skills through teaching and practice is what leads to better and analytical thinking, logic and creativity.
Try to get out of the frame with your child and focus on non-standard methods of receiving and understanding information. Children need to learn to think not only logically but also creatively, so stimulate their ability to find solutions, solve problems and understand the meaning of "thinking outside the box".
This is what we rely on in MindHub. We are continually working on the utilization of new and exciting ways to make learning for children interesting enough that programming becomes a passion for them. With our new interactive programming lessons, we stimulate them to develop some of the most valuable skills of the 21st century through gameplay and case studies.
3. Allow them to experiment
The development of the mind in the younger ones is much more intense, their consciousness is open to accepting new information, and curiosity predisposes to many questions and interest in what is unknown. It is during this period exactly that children should have the opportunity to experiment.
Given the needs of the professions of the future, the child's ability to adapt to new technologies is essential. And it is through getting to know artificial intelligence that it will be able to make the first steps towards the future. Whether a child will be involved in robotics, programming, optimization or even design through specific software, his imagination must be well developed.
Allow your children to achieve this through a variety of experiments, both in life and intellectually. Such can be chemical experiments and science in general. Take an afternoon and try different things at home with crayons, water, soap, soda. You will also surprise yourself with what you can achieve.
4. Help them develop analytical skills
Digital knowledge is at the heart of the future. The areas that are expected to be replaced by automation and, respectively, the technological changes that will occur, suggest different professional opportunities, but one thing is certain - analytical thinking will always be needed.
Not only because logic is leading in programming, but also because, no matter how good artificial intelligence is, the human ability to think logically and at the same time creatively cannot be replaced.
The development of analytical thinking helps children to understand easily the algorithms used in the field of programming and thus, prepare for the upcoming new professions in the IT industry.
To help your children develop their analytical skills, encourage them to try different brain games - puzzles, sudoku, crossword puzzles, and of course to read more books.
5. Give them the freedom to learn on their own
One of the most important steps in the process of preparing children for future innovations, and for the life as adults, is the ability to learn on their own. From how free and motivated a child is to try different and new things, a bunch of other qualities develop - such as independence, responsibility, proactivity, and initiative.
From an early age, it is important for children to be educated to initiate the solution of important social problems such as ecology, role models, school environment, communication and behavior in society, and of course, integration among innovative developments.
Through various sports, courses, experiments, social activities or others that are of interest to the child, he or she will be able to focus on their own development.
Everything that awaits us in the professional sector: career changes, the disappearance of some professions and the emergence of new ones; technological integration, optimization and automation of everyday processes - for all this we can only make an effort to prepare our minds, our skills and those of our children that will easily become a part of the world tomorrow.
There are more and more opportunities for free demo workshops, that will help you give the child a chance to try and assess whether programming is really the right choice.