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A critical crossroads: The intersection of the future of work and the future of education

WorkingNation at SxSW EDU 2020 in Austin
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We hear a lot of talk about how dramatic advances in technology will disrupt how we work in the future in very fundamental ways. The truth is: the future of work is now.

Robots, artificial intelligence, and automation are already transforming society and business. The workforce continues to shift further toward knowledge-based, highly-skilled jobs and away from industrial jobs.

As businesses adopt more automation and AI technologies, the nature of most jobs — the skills, tasks, and knowledge needed to perform them successfully — will continue to change. Some jobs will be eliminated altogether. And new jobs that we have not even yet conceived of will be created.

This is Where the Futures of Work and Education Intersect

We’re already seeing employers unable to fill millions of open positions because they can’t find enough workers with the knowledge and skills needed to get the job done. As the volume of unfilled jobs demonstrates, our education system and workforce training programs clearly aren’t keeping pace with the accelerated demand for tech-savvy workers.

Education must be an active part of solving this skilled worker shortage.

What is the future of education? How is it evolving to prepare students for the future of work?

We’re going to be talking about all these issues at SXSW EDU 2020 in Austin in March.

We’ll be conducting taped interviews at the conference for our WorkingNation Overheard series of videos and articles.

WorkingNation is asking questions about the future of work and the future of education, including:

  • Is the education system arming students with the skills they need for a successful career in high-demand industries?
  • Is higher education changing fast enough to keep up with the career needs of this generation?
  • How can educators work with the business community to create a pipeline of workers needed in the workplace today?
  • Will education prepare students to be lifelong learners?
  • What will higher education look like in the next decade?
  • Should four-year schools be more like two-year schools?
  • Does everyone need to go to college to get a good job?
  • Is college providing a good return on investment for students and parents?
  • Which innovative programs, schools, and education leaders are getting real results?
  • How is YOUR program or school evolving to fit the needs of students and society today and in the future?

We’re scheduling interviews. If you’re attending the conference, and want to talk to us, email us, let us know who you are, and share your thoughts on these important questions at [email protected]. We may ask you to share those thoughts on camera.

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.