On Wednesday, March 1, ISET hosted an 'Information Session' with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on "What a Career in ADB Entails". Mr. Toshio Oya, the ADB's Director General of the Budget, Personnel and Management Systems Department, led the session.
The ADB stands for development thinking and practice, spreading information through regional forums and a growing online presence, as well as the publication of specialized papers, serials and books. More than 3,000 staff from 67 different countries with and academic backgrounds come together to work for a common goal regardless of age, gender, religion or disability. The ADB aims to reduce poverty and contributes to the development, cooperation and integration of counties in Asia and the Pacific region and ensures that growth across these countries is sustainable and inclusive.
On February 20, ISET students delivered yet another policy seminar. The seminar was opened by Eric Livny, the president of ISET, who delivered an inspirational speech regarding the jobs of the future. He posed the question, “In this rapidly changing world, what do we need to teach schoolchildren today so that their skills and knowledge are still relevant ten or twenty years from now?”. This could be considered something of a million-dollar question, since in the next few decades, artificial intelligence seems likely to push humans out of the job market; if the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century created such a massive urban working class, the new technology revolution will create a massive class of useless people. Mr Livny also talked about the issue of degree inflation, and the disoriented universities that contribute to unemployment all over the world with meaningless degrees. As formal certification gradually loses its power, Mr Livny's suggestion was to create an online skills platform where those who offer their services are assessed by the number of stars.