IUEA Graduation Ceremony 2018 New Frontiers in Adaptive Learning for Upskilling African Workforce Dr. Nishikant Sonwalkar (SC.D., MIT) Co-Chair, EdTech Group, MIT Enterprise Forum Founder and President, intellADAPT Corporation www.intellADAPT.com
New Frontiers in Adaptive Learning for Upskilling African Workforce Overview Respected Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, Chairman of Board of Trustees, Faculty and students of IUEA, I am honored to address you today at your graduation ceremony. First, my heartfelt congratulations to students graduating today. You have worked very hard to receive the degrees and certificates. I also want to congratulate your family who supported you through your journey at IUEA to receive this honor. We are all indebted to the esteemed faculty and staff of IUEA who made it possible for you to achieve your dreams. I remember myself going through my doctoral degree at the Figure 1 Dr. Sonwalkar at the Commencement Ceremony, IUEA Kampala, Uganda Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which was a long journey and an honor. It was a milestone that I was thrilled to achieve, however, little did I know that that was the beginning of the next phase of my life and professional career. Today is your day to rejoice and celebrate this important milestone in your life that marks the successful completion of the degree program at IUEA. You are now ready to face the world and make IUEA staff proud with your accomplishments and by becoming a productive member of Uganda and East Africa. You will become a successful member of the African workforce. This is why I have chosen to give you a glimpse into the New Frontiers in Adaptive Learning to continue your life-long learning. The academic skills that you have developed as students at IUEA provides you scaffolding on which you have to build the tower of your career. I will provide you with an overview of the educational attainment and the job market supported by the labor statistics with a good news that many jobs are waiting for you all now that you have successfully earned your certificates, bachelors and master’s degrees conferred on you today by the esteemed senate of IUEA. I will also Introduce you to the brave new frontiers of the brainwave adaptive learning and how it can help in upskilling the workforce both in Uganda and East Africa. I will end with a call for action for the on-the-job training and education of the African workforce using a mobile location-based adaptive technology platform in collaboration with IUEA. The Educational Statistics – Uganda and USA Let’s start with some interesting statistics. The manpower survey conducted by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics indicates that Education Monograph of 2017 shows that the literacy in Uganda is concentrated in the Urban centers. As we move North and towards the Eastern region, education is needed to develop a workforce that can participate in lifting the economy. While we need to improve literacy and educational attainment, the Manpower Survey of Uganda 2016-17 shows that there are significant number of job vacancies currently available that are looking for managers and professionals like yourselves. Bachelors ’ and masters ’ degrees are now required for most professional jobs. Technical and managerial jobs are growing in the public sector while technical, communication, and customer service are desired skills in the private sector. DR. NISHIKANT SONWALKAR (SC.D., MIT) 2
New Frontiers in Adaptive Learning for Upskilling African Workforce Even in the United States, 25% of the population are high-school graduates, 20.4% of the population are some college with no degree completion, 26.4% bachelor’s degree, 7.5% master’s degree, and PhD degrees are only 1.8% of the total educated population over 25 years of age. Earning potential is directly correlated with educational attainment in the U.S. An associate ’s degree (certificate) can command a salary of about $71,000/year while a master ’s degree can command a salary of about $86,000/year. It is important to note that there is a significant difference in the salary of male and female employees for the same level of educational attainment. You will have to work hard to create a more equitable world. We live in a highly competitive world and in a society that is hyper connected. You are now a part of the global workforce. With the global dominance of Google, Apple, Amazon providing e-commerce and social media provided by Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, we are now more connected with each other. The world has become a global village. You are now competing not only with the graduating students of Africa but also with the students graduating in other continents and emerging economies, such as India, China and Brazil. The competition is now transatlantic between MIT and IIT and HBS and IIM and other emerging educational institutions across the globe. You need to make sure you upskill yourself as you join the workforce. The skills you have today will need honing at every turn of your professional career. A good example is the Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA) project where I was closely involved with the development of five new masters’ programs for numerous Universities in Singapore as the Principal Educational Architect. This collaboration is partly responsible for the phenomenal technological success of Singapore as the ultimate Smart City of the world. Can we transform Kampala into the next leading Smart City at global scale with your help? The answer is a resounding YES. The Knowledge Worker for a Hyperconnected World Since the dawn of the industrial revolution, educational systems have been primarily based on the skills required at factories that used steam power, internal combustion engines and electrical motors. The commercialization of the physical assets required a particular kind of industrial worker that had the physical skills needed by the production lines of steam engines for railways, internal combustion engines for the automotive and aviation industry, and electrical generators and motors for powering household electricity. As a result, educational systems were focused on creating workers that would work diligently at factories, producing goods and services for the consumption of the society. However, the early 1990s witnessed the development of internet protocol by Tim Berners Lee - the birth of the world wide web that led to the development of a new kind of worker, now known as the knowledge worker. By early 1999 and 2000, there was a dot-com boom, followed by a dot-com bust in early 2002 to 2005, which ultimately led to the global recession in 2008. Loss of jobs followed by the correction of the economy was the result of the dot-com bubble. Now we need knowledge workers, not industrial workers. With the advent of AI, most industrial jobs will be done by intelligent machines. We are now witnessing the dawn of the intelligent machines, which are challenging the skills of human beings, often achieving better and more accurate results. So where does that leave us, the mortal human beings, with our limitations of skills? What is the strategic advantage we human beings have? The answer lies in the creativity of the human brain. DR. NISHIKANT SONWALKAR (SC.D., MIT) 3
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