The Guardian recently reported that even ‘teachers, police officers and social workers could be replaced’ to some degree. However, not all teaching roles are up for grabs, and the FE jobs sector may have some of the safest positions. Here’s why.
As the Guardian so aptly put it, “Technology places the world in the hands of every student”. Used to it’s fullest potential in the classroom, technology can be a powerful incentive for students and encourages them to engage fully with their studies.
When used in conjunction with lecturers and workshops in an FE environment, technology enables students to go further. This can include online libraries, offering an index of papers and books that either students wouldn’t be able to afford or libraries don’t have the budget to loan.
Technology also helps to promote more personalised learning, by which students are more likely to be taught in a way which is most effective for them. As EdWeek put it, “digital devices, software, and learning platforms offer a once-unimaginable array of options for tailoring education to each individual student’s academic strengths and weaknesses”.
There are seven different ways in which we learn, including visual, verbal and physical. With FE subjects like Science and Engineering, tangible physicality is key to understanding processes. Technology can enable more exact measuring and testing in their fields, but FE teachers are still required to take students through the steps and work with the students to find solutions to problems.
Not to mention, many learners cannot learn from books alone. Technology may help to get thousands of texts, diagrams and even 3D models to even more students, but accessibility alone doesn’t ensure a learner's success.
One might argue that FE teachers won’t be needed to teach engineering or practical studies as robots will be brought in to automate the services and production lines. But while this will certainly happen, as it is already, this will only change what students learn, not that they will be learning.
Over the last 140 years, automation has actually made more jobs than it eliminated. In fact, it destroyed many of the more dangerous, low paying jobs to make room for better ones. As economist from the Deloitte consultancy found, based on historical data, automation will lead to better, more engaging jobs in the fields which are currently ‘at risk’ of automation.
Essentially, technology will change the job market but won’t destroy it.
Teaching is a caring job and a very interpersonal profession. Teachers need to be able to think on their feet, encourage their students, adapt their teaching style to suit their students, and use contextual knowledge to their advantage in the classroom.
Technology is, as yet, incapable of doing this with the same skill as a human, and therefore automated technology is incapable of replacing teachers, lecturers, and laboratory/teaching assistants. As far as management and leadership roles in FE are concerned, a machine would need to have significant problem-solving skills and a gift for macro thinking in addition to an in-depth knowledge of a specialist subject matter and the education system at large.
So, not only are FE jobs safe from automation, they may very well become even more desirable as a result of technology improving the way we work.
AoCJobs, part of the Association of Colleges, connects teachers and support staff with schools and colleges for online job opportunities.
