Education for the future...

What skills will you need for the new global economy? When considering the future and the many challenges we face in a world that is growing technologically flat (as Thomas Friedman claims in The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century), the following tips may offer you more opportunity in an increasingly challenging global job market:

• Learn a language. Chinese and Spanish may be useful, but English remains the dominant language for the near future. Whatever language you learn, challenge yourself to learn it to the greatest extent possible.
• Crunch numbers. Math skills rule in accounting, engineering, banking, science, and computer engineering. Mathematics also teaches you to successfully solve increasingly complex problems in an orderly manner. Challenge yourself to go as far as you are mathematically capable.
• Study acting. The ability to successfully communicate remains a critical skill in today's world. Writing is important, but the communication skills you can learn in an acting or speech class are also important for business, sales, communication, and retail careers.
• Learn to do laboratory work. Science skills will remain important in future problem solving. Chemistry, in particular, will remain especially important for solving the complex global energy and environmenatal issues facing us all.
• Think global. Study History and geography to better understand the global culture, environment, and development of nations. Travel whenever you have the opportunity as there is no better way to learn about and appreciate other cultures.