By Sanjiv Goyal with Sandeep Shrivastav

In this article, you will learn about:

• What questions we need to be asking about the future of education.
• Why collaborative learning is essential for innovation.
• The global skills gap.
• Life lessons from IIT inside and outside the classroom.
• Why IITians are so successful.
• Why sustainability is good for business.
• The power of systemic review.
• Why we should extend the power of intention to our institutions.
• How the education system has to change to help prevent future pandemics.

It’s October 2020. The Post Pandemic way of life has become our reality. With everything turned on its head, we are artfully doing what humans do best: adapting. This week I sat down with Sandeep Shrivastav, IIT Alum, Finance Consultant, entrepreneur, and Value Com Co-founder to discuss where education is headed in a post-pandemic world.

Lessons From IIT Inside and Outside the Classroom

Having both attended IIT, we look back on those times fondly as the formative years of our lives. Naturally, we learned as much from the environment as the curriculum. Inside the classroom, we learned to have an open mind. Outside of it, we learned how to lean on our peers to make it through trials we could never have braved on our own.

After several experiences when he received A’s though he expected to fail, Sandeep learned not to take things at face value. Inside the classroom, the most important takeaway was to leave assumptions and preconceived notions, especially negative ones, at the door. If you keep an open mind people will surprise you, including yourself.

Outside of class, the importance of collaborative learning came into sharp focus. The social fabric of college is where most youth learn to work together, live together, and hone the soft skills that will lay the foundation of their success after they graduate. These vital lessons can’t be found on any professor’s syllabus.

It was the times when we had to rely on our classmates that illuminated what was truly important. For Sandeep, the aha moment came three days before his thesis was due.

Without a word written, he found himself on the verge of a breakdown. A friend took him on a long walk and reassured him that all he had to do was try. The pep talk gave him just enough motivation. He hardly slept for three nights, but in the end, managed to pull an A. If it hadn’t been for the wisdom and support from his friend there would have been a very different outcome.

This same lesson dawned on me the night before a midterm. Our toughest professor had assigned a practice sheet of 9 questions that stumped everyone. Together with two classmates, we stayed up until dawn putting our heads together in hopes of finding the answers. We managed to answer just six of the questions despite the long hours and our best efforts. The next day, to our amazement and relief, the questions on the exam were the same ones. Only 4 people got a passing grade. That experience taught me that in order to succeed you need a team.

Problem Solving isn’t just a technical experience, it’s an emotional one as well. Having someone to share the wave of curiosity, frustration, excitement, disappointment, triumph, and celebration is what makes it worthwhile. No man is an island. The camaraderie and confidence gained outside of the classroom, that’s what makes students resilient and confident they can take on the challenges of life.

We must return to this integrated style of learning and open thought exchange so that we can produce young minds capable of tackling the problems of our time. Collaborative learning and teamwork are weak areas in our current education system. This is where improvements need to be applied because they are fundamental for bridging the skills gap.

What is the Skills Gap?

Traditionally the skills gap refers to the discrepancy between the skills employers rely on from employees and the skills that job-seekers possess. The skills gap makes it difficult for individuals to find jobs and for employers to find appropriately trained workers.

In this article, I’m referring to an expanded definition of the skills gap: the global skills gap. What does that mean? It means we have reached a point in history where we aren’t predominantly facing individual or local problems. We can no longer talk about the skills gap only in terms of the job market.

The global skills gap refers to a population facing sweeping world problems that will affect us all and that we will need to come together to resolve. Not the least among them: climate change, food and water shortages, viruses, future pandemics, resistance to antibiotics, and natural disasters.

We need a population, or “workforce,” that is equipped to find solutions to those problems. That’s why it’s vital for our education system to create an environment where people can think for themselves, learn resilience in the face of failure, and feel comfortable dreaming big.

The New Function of the Education System

Higher education should no longer merely operate to provide an educated workforce so that we can have a functioning society and economy. We have to examine whether our education system is training people to be able to solve the fast approaching problems of tomorrow, some of which are already on our doorstep. This type of systemic thinking is what we were taught at IIT, and it’s what makes us successful to this day.

The education system whose primary concern used to be generating a knowledgeable population that would enter the workforce and drive the economy now has a much bigger task. Our education system must align with creating a population of young people who will have the innovative skills to solve the challenges of our time. In the case of IIT, we must go beyond producing great engineers for the moment and start molding young minds that will engineer the future.

The Power of Systemic Intention

At a time when sustainability is the priority, producing a sustainable workforce has to be the long term goal of education. We have all heard about the power of intention. From Wayne Dyer to Oprah to Dr. Joe Dispenza, it has become mainstream knowledge that intentionality can affect outcomes. What many are implementing on a personal level, we must challenge our society to apply systemically. When we do, we can expect major shifts for the better.

We must ask deep questions not only of ourselves but of our institutions as well. What are their goals? Who are they serving? Is it sustainable? What is their function? Are their objectives in alignment with the greater good? Are they providing short-term or long-term solutions?

Just as we are accountable personally, we must become accountable systemically. It is time for a systemic review. When it comes to education we must ask: Are our educational institutions teaching people how to think about problems in productive ways? Are they equipping the masses to face and solve imminent problems such as climate change, population growth, and health crises?

At Amplified Curiosity we are asking those very questions and coming together to build a foundation of visionaries, problem-solvers, innovators, and humanitarians, to take civilization to the next level for the greater good of all.

Sustainability: A Lucrative Business Model

Just as people are waking up to their greater purpose, so too are industries, businesses, government institutions, and other societal infrastructures. We must all be asking if we are in alignment with what will serve us in the future, what will preserve our planet, and what is in the best interest of all.

The focus has to be on: How can we help each other? How can we work together? Is there a better way? We must remember who we are serving and why.

The purpose of the education system is to empower people through literacy, to prepare them for the workforce, and to give people a chance at a better quality of life. Increasingly we have lost sight of that and the focus is on test scores and funding.

The main objection is always the money, but as we see with companies like Apple, when you provide massive value, enormous profits follow. The greatest value we can offer right now is ensuring the longevity of the human race and the protection of our planet. As a businessman and an entrepreneur, I believe that the sustainable way, the way that provides solutions for billions is also the best way to earn billions.

Businesses have to remember that doing things with integrity and with an eye on the long-term consequences will create wealth for them. Going after the fast money at the expense of our health, our environment, and our values isn’t the most profitable way forward. We are at a time when producing the greatest impact long term and serving the most people makes financial sense.

That is the level of awareness that I hope to see as we craft the post-pandemic education system. How can we intentionally create learning environments similar to those high-pressure days of IIT that are profitable and produce the educated population we need?

Conclusion

IIT Alums are some of the most successful entrepreneurs, businessmen, and problem solvers. The environment created by this higher learning institution made that possible. What can we learn from that model that could be applied across our education system?

We have reached a point in history where we are facing global issues like climate change and the COVID 19 pandemic. We have surpassed issues related to the classic definition of “the skills gap” and are now facing a global skills gap with world-wide implications.

It would serve us to question the intentions of our institutions and make sure their primary goal is to serve the greater good in sustainable ways. Sustainability is the new formula for wealth creation and forward progress. For education, this means teaching in a way that empowers young minds to tackle the problems of the future.

For more discussions like these please register for the IIT 2020 Global Summit by clicking here. Registration is open to all.