Prepping children for an uncertain future

Instead of educators preparing children for the newly emerged AI and machine-learning VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world, the burden of nurturing children for the uncertain future has devolved upon parents pitchforked into the new BANI (brittle, anxious, non-linear and incomprehensible) age – Kiran Balimane & Cynthia John. 

• In its Future of Jobs Report 2025, the Davos-based World Economic Forum says that 65 percent of children entering primary school today will soon be employed in new vocations that don’t yet exist currently.
• A report of the US-based transnational management consultancy McKinsey & Co projects that by 2030, 30 percent of all employment will be automated and 60 percent “significantly altered” by AI (Artificial Intelligence) tools.
• US-based investment bank and financial services multinational Goldman Sachs predicts that 300 million existing jobs are likely to be executed by AI-driven robots by 2045.
• OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) — a club of the world’s most industrialised countries — has highlighted that 1.1 billion jobs are likely to be radically transformed by technology in the next decade.

 

Although such alarmist reports about the future of work have been circulating in esoteric think-tanks and ivory towers of universities for quite some time, for the vast majority of educators — policy formulators, school leaders and teachers — who should be in the vanguard of reframing school and higher education syllabuses and curriculums to address this looming problem, it’s education as usual.

Instead of educators preparing children for the newly emerged AI and machine-learning VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world, the burden of nurturing children for an uncertain future has devolved upon parents pitchforked into the new BANI (brittle, anxious, non-linear and incomprehensible) age. With education institutions taking their own time to come up to speed, prime responsibility to press for education reforms and shape children’s future has devolved upon parents of growing children.    

“Good grades in school and college will have little value in the future, as machines get ever better at recalling and interpreting knowledge and performing administrative, repetitive jobs. What is needed is a generation of learners who can do what machines can’t — think originally, adapt swiftly, lead ethically, and empathise deeply. Unfortunately, our schools are slow to develop vital 21st-century life skills, and provide children little training to apply knowledge practically and cope with failure. In the circumstance, parents will have to play a more active role in teaching children the emotional and life skills required to succeed in the digital age,” says Sridhar Pallia, a Bengaluru-based clinical psychologist and co-founder of DigiNxtHlt Solutions and Services, a mental wellness health-tech company.

Based on the inputs and opinions of highly-qualified parenting coaches, career experts and psychologists, we present a guide for parents to prepare children for the new VUCA/BANI, AI and machine learning age.

 

Focus & self-motivation

With multiplying digital distractions and entertainment options — a latest AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences), Raipur study says that children under age five expend 2.2 hours daily staring at digital screens — available to children, motivating them to focus and learn has become an invaluable parenting skill. “Focus and self-motivation are very important skills in the new age of distraction, where the average child’s attention span averages 60 seconds. Parents must teach children to focus and aspire by encouraging autonomy, nurturing curiosity, and celebrating effort over outcomes. A child who learns to reflect, set goals, bounce back from setbacks, and take ownership of her learning, will develop the mindset needed to succeed. Such children develop adaptability, resilience, and agility — essential traits for navigating an uncertain, fast-changing future,” says Poulami Sarkar, a Kolkata-based parenting coach, career strategist, emotional intelligence educator and Founder & CEO of Dreams EdTech.

To develop focus and self-motivation, Sarkar recommends three pathways.

1. Encourage child’s autonomy. Developing focus and self-motivation begins with giving children sense of control over their learning and decisions. When children feel they have a say — whether it’s choosing what book to read or researching a school project — they become more invested in outcomes. Encourage age-appropriate choices and independent problem-solving to nurture capability to seize initiatives. Sense of ownership is a powerful driver of motivation, laying foundations for lifelong self-directed learning.

Actionable advice:

• Give your child a choice between two home chores.
• Let her decide the order of subjects to study.
• Involve and solicit her opinion in decorating her study area.
• Encourage her to prepare weekly study and play timetable.

2. Encourage mastery. Shift the focus from perfection to progress. Children are more likely to remain motivated when they know they are improving over time. Appreciate effort, persistence, and the process of learning — rather than outcomes and/or grades — thereby developing a growth mindset. Celebrating small wins and interpreting mistakes as learning opportunities reinforces the belief that capability can be developed. This is a powerful motivator for continuous effort and resilience.

Actionable advice:

• Encourage your child to write a Growth Journal to record what she has learned every day.
• Use stickers or point systems to reward tasks completed independently.

3. Inculcate sense of purpose. Enabling children to understand the linkage between what they’re learning with potential workplaces significantly boosts self-motivation. When children grasp the linkage between learning and application — how a skill or subject connects with their interests, dreams, environment — they are more likely to focus and persist with learning.

Actionable advice:

• Connect school subjects to real-world scenarios. For instance, learning how maths mastery enables money management.
• Educate children about differing career options and which subjects best connect with them.
• Encourage reading about successful entrepreneurs and their motivational impulses.

Life skills education

Although there’s belated awareness within educators, policy formulators and educationists about the importance of life skills — the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 mandates inclusion of life skills education into K-12 curriculums — only a handful of progressive schools have integrated life skills education into their curriculum. According to Bengaluru-based psychologist Sridhar Pallia, there is glaring lack of awareness among educators and parents about the importance of developing children’s social-emotional skills to prepare them to deal with failure, nurture relationships, manage sexuality, exam fears, rejection, peer pressure and stress. “It’s the duty of parents to nurture children’s social and emotional skills so that they can manage and navigate the uncertain future,” says Pallia.

Pallia identifies six important life skills that parents need to teach children:

Adaptability. Capability to manage new information, environments, and unexpected challenges.

Problem-solving. Applying academic learning to solve personal & workplace problems.

Emotional intelligence. Controlling emotions, developing empathy and relationship-building skills.

Self-driven learning. The habit of acquiring knowledge from sources beyond academia.

Creativity. Applying imagination for innovation.

Collaboration & teamwork. To learn to work cooperatively, often cross-culturally.

“The primary obligation of developing these increasingly important life skills is of parents. The best pathway is to involve children in decision-making, household planning and budgeting, and conflict resolution. Everyday experiences — planning a family excursion, managing digital screen time, helping with a group project — provide opportunities to develop children’s adaptation, problem-solving, and collaboration skills. When children are encouraged to deliberate action-outcomes, express emotion freely, and take learning initiatives, they develop the confidence and competence required to thrive personally and in workplaces. Most important, parents should lead by example as life skills are best learned through lived experience, rather than lectures,” advises Pallia.

Careers preparation

With the possibility that currently popular vocations may become non-existent in the near future, it’s important to educate children about new age careers and pathways. As industries are reshaped by automation, climate change, and technology disruption, awareness about emerging new career options enables children to appreciate the virtues of multi-disciplinary education. “From young age — starting in primary school — children should be made aware of newly emerging career options. Early awareness helps them connect classroom learning with professional aspirations and discover their aptitudes and special intelligences. By exploring different careers — through role-play, interactive experiences, or guided discussions — children begin to understand the skills and values associated with various professions. In a future when many of today’s vocations may no longer exist and entirely new careers will emerge, early awareness of the importance of multidisciplinary education and developing a wide range of interests will help them to navigate an unpredictable world of work,” says Tarandeep Singh Sekhon, the Mumbai-based Chief Business Officer at KidZania India, a interactive family entertainment and learning centre with theme parks in Mumbai and Delhi.

According to Sekhon, parents can introduce children to career options and choices in interesting ways.

1. Role-play & immersive experiences. Through role-play, children can experience numerous professions. Encourage them to dress the part, use toy tools, and address workplace problems. This is not pretend play, it’s practice. Simulated environments develop critical thinking skills and broaden minds.
2. Field trips. Organise visits to workplaces — for instance, a bakery, fire station, or broadcast studio — to expose children to worlds of work. Encourage them to observe professionals in action and ask questions.
3. Explore differing careers through AR & VR. Augmented and Virtual Reality enable children to conduct simulated surgeries, argue cases in virtual courtrooms, explore outer space from the comfort of their own homes. Several online platforms offer high-engagement AR/VR simulated career environments for children to explore differing vocations at their own pace.
4. Personal career projects. Whether it’s coding a game, nurturing a garden, or producing a podcast — children love experiential project work. It equips them with creativity and problem-solving skills essential for success in any profession or vocation.
5. Gamified career exploration. Transform career exploration into interactive games. Parents could design ‘career quests’ in which children complete challenges or role-play different professions to earn points or badges. For example, a ‘Doctor Quest’ could involve diagnosing stuffed animals, while an ‘Architect Challenge’, could mandate building a model house with blocks or cardboard.
6. Edutainment parks. Many cities host children’s edutainment parks — miniature cities featuring simulated workplaces such as hospitals, airports, newsrooms, fire stations and banks. These parks are dynamic classrooms for children to learn about numerous careers. Make the time to visit them with your children.
7. Guest lectures. Invite professionals to speak to your child about their work. Whether it’s a relative, neighbour, family friend, or a local entrepreneur, listening to them talk about their work provides children with valuable information and perhaps successful role models to emulate.
8. Clubs, contests and competitions. Encourage children to enrol in special interest clubs, participate in science fairs, art and crafts contests, among other events. Such activities enable children to develop collaboration skills, resilience, and a growth mindset — traits required of future-ready professionals.
9. Using media to spark exploration. Today, children have unprecedented access to information media. Introduce children to documentaries, books, podcasts, and education channels offering insights into various careers. For instance, a behind-the-scenes documentary of wildlife veterinarians or a podcast featuring AI-app designers.
10. Embed vocation discovery in daily activities. Career exploration should not be a once-a-year exercise. Make it a continuous conversation — discuss careers and evolving job roles at the dinner table while encouraging children to ask questions.

Family activities to develop children’s creative thinking

Over 73 percent of employers surveyed in the Davos-based World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Survey 2025 ranked creative thinking skills “a top priority for them when considering talent as we move into the future”. Poulami Sarkar, a Kolkatabased parenting coach, career strategist, and emotional intelligence educator, shares four family activities to develop children’s creative thinking skills:

1. My learning passport. Create a booklet with 30 pages, with each page differently titled: “Today I explored,” “This challenged me,” “I asked a great question,” etc. Encourage children to report what they learned and experienced every day. Reward a full monthly passport with a treat/family outing.
2. Brainstorm Box. Keep a box in the study area/living room with plenty of sticky notes. Encourage kids to write doubts, ideas, or ‘aha!’ moments. Discuss the sticky notes weekly during parent-child brainstorming sessions.
3. Career in a minute. Pick a profession/career every week. Watch a one-minute video clip on YouTube or read an online article about the chosen career. Discuss what they like/dislike about the career.
4. Subject-story mix. Ask your children to write a story applying the information they learned in class. For example, a detective using fractions to solve murders, or a superhero using science concepts to invent a superhuman device.

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