Fashion Educators, Are You Burying Your Head in the Sand or Are You Ready for the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

The Facts

OK. Let’s begin with some facts.

The education technology or EdTech industry is currently booming, and all reports suggest it will continue to boom for the foreseeable future. In fact, according to Forbes, it’s an industry valued at $107 billion per year. There was $2.51 billion invested in EdTech companies during the first half of 2015 alone. So someone’s taking it seriously.

In May 2016, the leading education technology-focused conference, EdTechXGlobal, released a report which referred to the growing realisation of the impact EdTech is having on the way skills are acquired and developed for the 21st Century workforce. And fashion can’t bury its head in the sand and not embrace educational technology strategies to keep ahead.

The report explains that the speed of EdTech growth will be hugely dictated by the global education expenditure market as education is increasingly becoming more and more expensive to deliver in traditional ways. In fact, the report said that the education market itself is now worth over $5tn.

To give you some idea of the scale, that’s 8x the size of the software market and 3x the size of the media and entertainment industry combined. In other words, it’s big with a capital B. But guess what percentage of education is digitised? Less than 3%!

Nothing Happens Fast in Education

If you are in the education sector yourself, you’ll know that nothing happens quickly regarding key changes. Changes in this sector will be predictably slow, given the nature of the stakeholders involved. Teachers, institutions, governing bodies, education authorities and policymakers, IT vendors, to name a few. But the need to change is unquestionable.

The report says that the market is projected to grow at 17.0% per annum, to $252bn by 2020. Education technology then is becoming a global phenomenon. It’s estimated that 90% of the world's population are under 30 years of age in emerging markets. They are digitally connected and are increasingly turning to mobile platforms for education and vocational training solutions. So don’t expect the courses you or your organisation develops to be used primarily on desktops. Mobile solutions will rule.

By 2035, there are expected to be 2.7bn students worldwide and to meet higher education demand under the current structure, it’s estimated that a minimum of two universities needs to be built every day over the next twenty years. A figure that seems extraordinary. So universities will be compelled to offer their own virtual classes more often and figure out ways to attach their certifications to the courses they offer.

The Robots Are Coming

One of the factors driving investments in training and re-skilling is the continued growth in robots, drones and artificial intelligence. According to McKinsey, almost monthly, there are breakthroughs in this field, and we’ve now reached a tipping point.

They have been studying the effects of automation on the workforce and say that:

“Currently demonstrated technologies could automate 45 percent of the activities people are paid to perform, and that about 60 percent of all occupations could see 30 percent or more of their constituent activities automated, with technologies available today.”

They suggest that the 'Fourth Industrial Revolution' will see an increase in workforce automation to include highly repetitive low-skill jobs and highly routine medium-skill jobs. Hmm. Who’s job is at risk than in fashion?

What will this lead to? Well, employees will surely be compelled to learn new skills driven by the gap between the supply and demand of candidates increases. To ensure they don't lag, whole industries will need to revamp their educational systems to compete. Small niche curated course sites will appear, harvesting private subject experts' expertise that can step in and fill the gap and provide targeted educational input for specific skills. Their reach will be global through platforms that readily empower them to create and promote their courses.

This is good news if you are in education or are an independent course developer. The education system itself will not be able to cope with the demand for online education offers. Its courses will take too long to develop, they have too much invested in their current infrastructures to undermine these, and they can’t respond quickly enough. 

One of the interesting facts that I came across in preparation for this post was the amount of investment going into EdTech for consumers versus educational establishments such as universities. In the past, consumer education platforms received very little funding, but this has now changed. Since 2012, funding has grown from $626 million to $1.41 billion. Businesses that primarily serve colleges and universities do not appear to be attracting investors’ interest as much. Savvy investors see the best returns to be had by betting on the consumer side of the equation.

So What Does That Mean For Fashion Subject Experts?

Well, here's my take on it. I believe there are 9 key benefits these changes will bring us.

1. Being in the online education space will be a great place to be for the foreseeable future. Whether you work in it full time, shift careers or create your own courses to generate an extra stream of income, there’s going to be exciting things happening.
2. The fashion workforce is going to need our educational support. It’s already going through change, and more and more elements of the industry will need to retrain its workforce and adapt to new ways of doing business.
3. Universities and colleges will need tutors with an understanding of and expertise in online course development or at the very least be familiar with what’s possible and how to integrate these modes of learning into their classroom programmes.
4. For individual tutors that develop their own courses, it will lead them to have a wider reach, enabling them to make a difference to larger audiences than ever before.
5. Our jobs are about to get interesting, require us to change and adapt to stay ahead.
6. There will be plenty of opportunities to seize, commercially, personally and educationally.
7. The sheer size of the investment, which is being pumped into the Edutech arena, will find its way into the marketplace and the hands of course developers and subject experts at some point. Those that respond to the opportunity can enjoy the pie.
8. Our expertise, knowledge and skills will be needed like never before, but delivered in different ways.
9. The ninth benefit I believe these changes offer is that they can bring additional income streams for anyone with knowledge and experience of the fashion industry by developing and selling profitable online courses. If they grasp the opportunity, it's there to be had.

I challenge you to join the ranks of those fashion professionals such as myself, who live what they teach, and who walk their talk.