Will MBAs Need to Learn New Tricks in the Future?

The workplace of the future, with an increased accent on systems operated by Artificial Intelligence, would need employers, employees and students to adapt to sweeping changes that could also see doors opening for those from the humanities background and an increased emphasis on education throughout the career.

These were some of the ideas that emerged during a daylong symposium titled ““The Future of Work,” held at the Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center on August 30.

Participating in the symposium, Jeff Maggioncalda, chief executive at the online education company Coursera, said while a traditional college degree will remain useful to build fundamental skills, after graduation, you would be expected to continue education throughout your career.

Workers, for instance, may increasingly pursue specific job-oriented qualifications or applied credentials in incremental steps in flexible, lower-cost programs, he was quoted as saying in Stanford Insights blog.

The symposium, organised by Stanford Career Education and OZY EDU, the education arm of online magazine OZY, was attended by 300 people, including students, academics and business leaders. The speakers explored the changing workplace, new possibilities for higher education and technology’s impact on careers and industries.

The event included keynote speeches, panel discussions and a hands-on workshop on career and life planning. Harry Elam, Jr., Stanford’s senior vice provost for education, pointed out that at present, students were hesitating to major in the humanities and social sciences out of fear that those degrees will lead only to low-wage jobs.

However, these fields remain crucially important to the industry, which needs liberal arts students for countless tasks, such as to help understand biases in data, facilitate collaboration, bring insight, provide historical perspective, and “humanize technology in a data-driven world.”

“There are all of these educational opportunities that are open to anyone who has the will and desire and ability to go through it, and as a result, I think we’re going to see all sorts of new people come into fields they otherwise wouldn’t have access to,”

For instance, machines should not only function but should also optimize human welfare. What if a self-driving car needs to go faster than the speed limit to avoid an accident? Should that car be allowed to break the law? These kinds of questions of the new digital economy “all require a diversity of thought, diversity of approach, and diversity of background to address these complex issues,” Elam says.

Trent Hazy, who is at present a student at Stanford said those who major in the humanities or social sciences, especially fields like philosophy and public policy, can easily develop transferable skills that employers value. Hazy is also co-founder of MindSumo, a firm that connects college students with employers by inviting students to submit solutions to challenges that companies post online.

Due to rising demand from employers for candidates comfortable with data and data analysis, humanities majors who add quantitative skills by taking classes in, say, statistics or logic will have an edge over others, he added.

What does the future hold for the traditional brick-and-mortar college campus? Speakers generally agreed that these would certainly remain because of the need for educational and social face-to-face encounters in and outside the classroom.

After graduation and securing jobs, employees will increasingly need continuing education to stay competitive. Companies recognize this fact, said Julia Stiglitz, vice-president at Coursera, a Stanford MBA (2010). Already, some large firms such as AT&T use online learning in a “massive reskilling effort” to re-train workers.

“There are all of these educational opportunities that are open to anyone who has the will and desire and ability to go through it, and as a result, I think we’re going to see all sorts of new people come into fields they otherwise wouldn’t have access to,” she added.

Anant Agarwal, professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and chief executive of online learning firm edX, said workers may think of continual training and education through online classes as earning “micro-credentials” that could garner credit toward a full degree at a traditional institution. Individuals could earn multiple micro-credentials over the years, perhaps beginning even with a “micro-bachelor’s” in high school as a head start on an undergraduate degree, he says.

Michael Moe, co-founder of GSV Asset Management, stated that over the course of their career, people would augment “the three R’s” (reading, writing, and arithmetic) that they learned early in life with “the four C’s” of critical thinking, communication, creativity, and cultural fluency.

Research suggests that by 2030, about half of today’s jobs will be gone. Speakers agreed that automation will perform many current blue-collar and white-collar jobs, while independent contractors will fill a large fraction of future positions. Robots and other automation in the short term will displace individual workers, but technology over the long term is likely to create new economic opportunity and new jobs.

However, while automation may end certain jobs, it would not finish work, Moe said. He also pointed out that the workers’ attitudes would also change, forcing companies to revise their recruitment and retaining policies. College students in a survey indicated that they highly value work-life balance and are interested in working from home one or two days a week, Roberto Angulo, chief executive of AfterCollege, a career network for college students and recent graduates, said. Similarly, many of those past the traditional retirement age of 65 and remaining in the workforce may demand fewer hours or shorter workweeks.

Companies on their part are committing themselves to having a diverse workforce. While some say that diverse teams are smarter and more creative, according to Joelle Emerson, adjunct lecturer at Stanford GSB and founder and chief executive of diversity strategy firm Paradigm.

Other firms, especially technology companies, believe that they’re disproportionately responsible for designing the future and therefore it’s simply wrong to leave entire communities out of their teams, Emerson says.

Speakers also suggested various initiatives designed to increase inclusion, such as reacHire, which trains and supports women re-entering the workforce and Stanford’s Distinguished Careers Institute, which brings individuals with 20 to 30 years of career experience to campus for a year of “intergenerational connection” and learning with undergrads and graduate students.