The Number One Job Skill in 2020 (a comment)

How do they know what crucial career strength employers everywhere will be seeking now and even more so by the year 2020?   George Anders says  that we can work it out by studying this list of fast-growing occupations.  They were compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Sports coaches and fitness trainers. Massage therapists, registered nurses and physical therapists. School psychologists, music tutors, preschool teachers and speech-language pathologists. Personal financial planners, chauffeurs and private detectives. These are among the fields expected to employ at least 20% more people in the U.S. by 2020.

Anders has extracted a common thread from these job catagories and claims it is empathy.

He says that there is no substitute for the magic of a face-to-face interaction with someone else who cares. I agree!
Kittens Online Jigsaw Puzzle

No matter how technologically proficient and well able students are to self-educate; (or in others words no matter how technoheutagogical they are) there is still a need for the emotional richness of a real conversation with a real person.

This stood out for me when I completed assessment for an online course on Canvas called Creating Quality Online Instruction.  The course was good, I enjoyed it and got a lot out of the writing process. I wrote a course which I will soon launch online.

However the highlight of the course for me was when the lecturer recorded her comments about my assessment an uploaded her spoken words.  It was at this stage that I thought Ahh! There is really someone there.  I felt affirmed.

Anders says:

The more time we spend in the efficient but somewhat soulless world of digital connectivity, the more we will cherish a little banter with wait-staff and bartenders who know us by name. We will pay extra to mingle with other people who can keep the timeless art of conversation alive.

I agree with the article whole heartedly and would draw your attention to this explanation of Jacobs Process and this account of the way Jacobs Educates for Compassion and Empathy.

Resources:  

• George Anders is a contributing editor at Forbes, and the author of four business books. Follow him on Twitter @GeorgeAnders.
•  Jacobs Educates for Compassion and Empathy
• Now We Have It technologically Empowered Self Directed Learning
• The Pillars of Andragogy and How They Relate to Teaching the Creative Art
• Submergence: Ways to Access Online Learning.
  
• Technoheutagogy Website.
•    Technoheutagogic Learning Questionairre.