The Importance of Robotics & AI Education

The Need for Robotics & AI Education for ALL children

Robotics and AI are transforming the workplace at an unprecedented pace.

The changes will be so pervasive that McKinsey Research is forecasting robotics, AI, and automation will eliminate 400 – 800 Million jobs over the next 6 years. The World Economic Forum is forecasting 1 Billion people will need retraining in that same time frame.

In spite of the scope of change that is occurring, the impact of robotics and AI on the workforce is still largely misunderstood. It's not just about needing more roboticists or AI programmers. These technologies will impact all industries and the vast majority of careers. High school graduates who have robotics and AI literacy will be significantly advantaged no matter which profession they want to pursue in the future, and some experts believe that people lacking these skills may have a hard time finding a job within the next few years.

The Parallel Between Robotics and Computers in the 1980s

When considering the impact that robotics and AI will have on society, we can draw a strong parallel between these industries and the computer industry in the 1980's.

In the 1980s, programming was much harder, there were fewer programmers, and the industry was highly specialized. Programmers developed applications for specific sectors like banking, healthcare, or accounting, which greatly improved productivity, reliability, and workflow.

Back then, it was clear that we would need more programmers. However, the larger implication, which was not immediately obvious within the education system, was that everyone would need computer literacy. As computers integrated across all industries, computer literacy became a base requirement for a large number of jobs.

The same applies to the robotics and AI industries today. As these technologies transform all industries, these skills will rapidly shift from “nice to have” to “need to have”.

Robotics and AI Literacy in Unexpected Careers

Robotics and AI are often viewed as being connected to industries like high tech or manufacturing, but they are simultaneously integrating in a broad range of unexpected industries - from the legal profession, to fashion design, to accounting.

Consider this scenario from the marketing industry. 18 months ago, a marketing associate would have needed to know how to write, understand SEO, digital marketing and social media, and possibly be able to perform graphic work. Today, many of those functions are made easier by AI. A marketing associate who understands how to wield these AI tools would be 2-3 times more productive than the person who doesn’t understand them.

Consider this; if you own a marketing firm, and you’re hiring a new associate, would you hire a person who understands AI or the one who doesn’t? We’ve asked this basic question to more than 25,000 educators, and literally 100% have answered that they would hire the person with knowledge in AI. The implication for this is that once people with AI literacy are available, people without that literacy stop getting work.

It’s important to realize that this premise can be applied across virtually all jobs including many that would be described as "white collar". People with robotics and AI literacy will be advantaged across all industries and aspects of their lives.

Addressing the Skills Gap

It took the computer industry 30 years to evolve from a siloed industry to one where computer literacy is essential for many jobs. The robotics and AI industries will make this transition in less than ten years.

Projections suggest that technology will eliminate about 30-70 million jobs in the USA over the next 7 years, but it will also create millions of new jobs. Many of these will require strong STEM skills including robotics and AI knowledge.

In spite of this paradigm shift in the workplace, the education industry has had a difficult time inspiring youth to want to learn robotics, and in many cases are even discouraging the use of AI.

In high schools that offer robotics programs, average enrollment is just 3% of boys and 0.3% of girls. To put this into perspective, in a school with 2,000 students an average of 30 boys and 3 girls would be learning robotics, while 1,967 students aren’t gaining this key literacy.

At the middle school level, results are somewhat better, with 5% - 15% of students interested in learning robotics, depending on what platform is being used.

The way we teach robotics, we’ll get up to 30% of high school students interested in learning robotics – an increase of up to 10x for boys and 100x for girls.

At the middle school level, we’re doing even better, where up to 90% of students will indicate that they are interested in learning robotics. At the elementary level, up to 97% of children indicate they would be interested in learning robotics.

This level of engagement is magnitudes higher than what other programs achieve and we achieve virtual parity between boys and girls, eliminating the gender gap that exists in STEM education.

Be Part of the Solution

The coming decade will see unprecedented change, and you can be part of the solution by helping to prepare youth for the future.

Our founders have trained hundreds of educators how to teach robotics, and the vast majority of them had no prior robotics or coding experience. Anyone can do this!

Contact us to learn more about the exciting opportunity!

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