Workforce of the Future

    The workplace is changing rapidly. Rather than the standard working day of nine to five, employees are working more flexibly to meet their busy home lives. Advances in technology are {#blank#}1{#/blank#} the very nature of the tasks and skills required in the workplace.

    To gain a full perspective of how the workplace is set to change over the next decade, employee benefits provider Unum UK {#blank#}2{#/blank#} with The Future Laboratory to survey 3,000 workers across several industries. They also interviewed industry experts and business leaders on topics from artificial intelligence and robotics to the increase of flexible working and an ageing workforce.

    The result outlines some of the employment changes that businesses can expect to see over the next decade and predicts the {#blank#}3{#/blank#} of two worker cultures which will dominate the workforce. They are the obligated and the self-fulfilled workers.

    “Obligated workers” refer to people with dependents and the sandwich generation, {#blank#}4{#/blank#} raising children with caring for elderly parents. Therefore, they value a career {#blank#}5{#/blank#} to life stages and events and financial security. Joel Defries, 33, father of one kid and partner at London Vodka said, “A flexible employer will allow me to have a long paternity leave (陪产假) and to value my family just as much as I value my job.”

    Self-fulfilled workers are committed to life-long learning and acquiring new skills rather than {#blank#}6{#/blank#} to an employer. They actively look for personal development and want employee benefits that help them {#blank#}7{#/blank#} both their personal and professional ambitions. They treat personal commitments and pursuits as {#blank#}8{#/blank#} to professional commitments. Elly Kemp, 31, {#blank#}9{#/blank#} a full-time employee, now working part-time in a caféand also assisting with her grandmother's care said, “My approach to work allows me the freedom to {#blank#}10{#/blank#} my career at my own pace. I want my work to be fluid so I can change it when I want and do whatever makes me happy at the time.”

Emphasizing social play in kindergarten improves academics

    Emphasizing social play and students helping one another in kindergarten improves academic outcomes, self-control and attention regulation, finds new UBC research. The study, published in the journal PLoS One, found this approach to kindergarten curriculum also {#blank#}1{#/blank#} children's joy in learning and teachers' enjoyment of teaching.

    "Before children have the ability to sit for long periods {#blank#}2{#/blank#} information, they need to be allowed to be {#blank#}3{#/blank#} and be encouraged to learn by doing," said Dr. Adele Diamond, the study's lead author. "Indeed, people of all ages learn better by doing than by being told."

    Through a controlled experiment, Diamond and her colleagues {#blank#}4{#/blank#} the effectiveness of a curriculum called Tools of the Mind (Tools). The curriculum was introduced to willing kindergarten teachers and 351 children with different backgrounds in 18 public schools.

    Tools was developed in 1993 by two American researchers. Its basic {#blank#}5{#/blank#} is that social-emotional development and improving self-control is as important as teaching academic skills and content. The Tools {#blank#}6{#/blank#} the role of social play in developing skills such as self-control, selective attention and planning. "Skills like self-control and selective attention are necessary for learning. They are often more strongly associated with school readiness (入学准备) than intelligence quotient (IQ)," said Diamond. "This experiment is the first to show {#blank#}7{#/blank#} of a curriculum emphasizing social play."

    Teachers reported more {#blank#}8{#/blank#} behavior and greater sense of community in Tools classes. Late in the school year, Tools teachers reported they still felt {#blank#}9{#/blank#} and excited about teaching, while teachers in the control group were exhausted. "I have enjoyed seeing the {#blank#}10{#/blank#} progress my students have made in writing and reading." said a Tools teacher in Vancouver. "I have also enjoyed seeing the students get so excited about coming to school and learning. They loved all the activities so much that many students didn't want to miss school, even if they were sick."