Originally Published August 12, 2004 -- Your Wellness
Guide
Creativity Infuses
Energy Into Lifelong Learning
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|
After
September 11 and the Internet bubble, along with globalization’s
employment landscape changes, learning how to balance a new set of
educational interests and employment opportunities becomes a
necessity. Many people have asked how critical is education in a
new world of small business, entrepreneurism, and a less-loyal job
market. |
Dispelling
any public pessimism about the importance of upper learning, Kim Jones,
who heads Sun Microsystems’ Education Division, says “Education has become
and will continue to be critical in the information age. The big shift is
the need to deliver and make education available anywhere, anytime, to
anyone, on anything. Education needs to be offered to more people at a
much higher level.”
|
She
also notes that there is a need for a shift in how you think about
education. The traditional mode of going to college full-time as a
young adult and being set for the rest of your life is dead.
Instead, you need to think about education as a lifelong endeavor,
continually shaping your options and interests while meeting
economic opportunities. Technological advancements in the form of
Internet classrooms, as well as flexible class schedules offer
increased options for adults who are continually learning.
And,
while globalization brings concerns about the types of jobs that
will be available in the future, one of most exciting changes of
where you could put your higher-learning efforts is into
creativity. Creative-type jobs and businesses rank high in
safeguarding employment future. Jones says that she encourages
students to pursue advance degrees in business because they can use
the business sense to be innovative with creative ideas. She calls
this “creativity in motion...to develop new products, new services,
and new industries.” |
Photo Courtesy: Microsoft Corp.
Microsoft’s Chairman Bill Gates speaks at a
Connected Learning Community Technology Summit about the importance
of creating educational systems
and technology that allow people to learn at any
time and in any place.
|
Confirming
the creativity-combined-with-education trend, Dr. Jeanne Boeh, who
oversees the Economic Department at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, says
“one of the most important changes for education in this century will be
the greater importance placed on creativity both for new ideas and for
implementing them. The basic rote learning of skills will become even
less important due to the ease of outsourcing lower-level service jobs,
such as simple computer programming and financial analysis. Lower-level
white collar jobs will continue to be eliminated due to technology as well
as outsourcing.”
Richard
Flowers, author of
The Rise of the Creative Class, has long
predicted the growing importance of creativity in education and business.
In the
Houston Chronicle Flowers says "We are going through a fundamental change
in our society and economy. There has been a shift to creativity as the
fundamental source of economic growth. And for the first time, giving
people what we want in our lives is the economic factor that matters."
How can you
enhance your education with creativity options?
Take
Business Courses
-- learn how to start up and operate a business, as well as innovate.
This will help you put creative ideas into profitable, in-demand
employment and business opportunities.
Learn Math
and Science
-- creative innovators and problem solvers that have higher-level math and
science educations are going to be more in need.
Terra
Wellington
is a
national authority on creating a wellness lifestyle.
www.terrawellington.com
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Wellington