Education – And Its Limits

Gresham College

May 26

The most popular response to the challenge of automation is ‘more education’. This lecture argues that, for now, that is our best response. But ‘more education’ must go beyond simply rethinking what skills will be valuable in the future. We must also rethink how we educate – the way we teach has not really changed for centuries. And we must also rethink when we educate – providing people with a fixed set of skills at the start of their lives is no longer enough. However, there are serious limits to education – it is not the panacea that many imagine.