What this suggests is that innovation
and longer lives are driving the
need for continuous learning. The old
model of going to school for a while,
having a career (maybe at the same
company), and then retiring is being
replaced with a more continuous need
for access to new knowledge and skills
throughout a career that may take
many unpredictable twists and turns.
In our own disciplines, the seeds of
the solution may lie in the technology.
The Internet, the World Wide
Web, Massive Open Online Courses
(MOOCs), and related infrastructure
may supply some of the necessary
educational needs we see emerging.
Not every job will admit this form of
education, of course, but we can see
a society emerging in which learning
becomes a lifelong necessity for substantial
portions of the workforce.