The chapter identifies factors that influence readiness, acceptance and skill acquisition that are relevant in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and to expose the reader to the advantages the 4IR offers. To harness and embrace changes cum strategies that can be adopted to equip individuals across generations with the core skills needed in the workplace. A systematic literature review approach will be adopted to expand on the variables of the activated classroom model, which can create a teaching and learning environment that empower learners with needed creativity and an innovative mindset to better position them for the fourth industrial revolution. This chapter will highlight issues in conventional teaching and learning methods, how they limit creativity in learners and how the activated classroom model solves these issues. It is imperative to focus on teaching and learning methods, as the world is a constantly changing global village and will require individuals to learn, unlearn and relearn concepts to acquire new skills to stay relevant.
TopBackground
The nature of numerous occupations is changing, and others will cease to exist because of the 4IR, the workforce as known presently will be replaced by humanoids and artificial intelligence. New jobs and areas of specialization which do not exist will spring forth and be relevant considering the major changes that are underway; a new set of skill is required. About one-third of skills (35%) that are important in today’s workforce; in five years would have changed (Gray, 2016). We currently live in an age of high skills instability across all occupations types and industrial sector. The growth in robotics, humanoids, machine learning, genomics artificial intelligence, 3D printing and biotechnology just to name a few are disrupting the current business processes, decreasing the shelf-life of employees’ skills.
One major fear of the populace is the view that the 4IR will usher in the dawn of lack of employment. However, Allen (2015) claims that technology has created more jobs than it destroyed. Machines will only take on more repetitive and laborious tasks and seem no closer to eliminating the need for human labour from data gathered in the last 150 years in which the 2nd and the 3rd industrial revolution took place (Kianian, Tavassoli, & Larsson, 2015). But individuals are not being equipped with the core skill that the Fourth Industrial Revolution demands which is innovation, creative thinking, emotional intelligence, and cognitive flexibility. According to Mikulić (2018); Ogbeibu, Senadjki, & Nee (2018)
(Mikulić, 2018; Ogbeibu, Senadjki, & Nee, 2018), several factors influence acceptance, readiness and relevance in the 4IR, however, one major factor is the structure and curriculum of the education system (Razak, Alakrash, & Sahboun, 2019). The core ideal the 4IR offers is innovation, and creativity, however, what is currently obtainable is the education of individuals to do repetitive tasks in a monotonous way in which robots can execute more effectively. This lacks innovation and creativity which are the key constituents of the 4IR, to ensure readiness, ease acceptance and aid transition.