Preparing learners to thrive in a changing world
Introduction
This report captures the voices of thousands of teachers and students from around the globe, offering a wealth of perspectives on readiness for the future from those at the heart of education.
For young people on the brink of adulthood, the future can feel uncertain and difficult to navigate. Geopolitical shifts, rapid advances in technology such as generative artificial intelligence (AI), and the impacts of climate change are reshaping how we live and work in profound and increasingly unpredictable ways.
Yet we believe young people are more adaptable and more resourceful than they are often given credit for, and there is much we can do to support them to face the future with confidence. Teachers are always at the heart of helping young people learn how to navigate the world. Their role is more important now than ever - guiding students to develop the subject knowledge, skills and agency they need to shape their own futures and make a positive contribution to their communities and society as a whole.
As the world’s largest provider of international education for learners aged 3 to 19, Cambridge works with a community of 10 000 schools around the world, where teachers guide millions of learners in 160 countries through our programmes and qualifications every year. Given the impact of our curricula and assessment on teaching and learning, we always have a responsibility to listen closely to our schools. Yet we know that our students are more adaptable and more resourceful than they are often given credit for, and there is much we can do to support them to face the future with confidence. As educators, our role is to help them to develop the subject knowledge, skills and agency to shape their own futures and make a positive contribution to their communities and society as a whole.
At this moment, we need to understand how students – and their teachers – feel about students’ readiness for the future, the knowledge, skills and attributes they think are important, and the challenges they perceive in developing them. With this information, we can better shape the pathways that enable students to thrive in an unpredictable world.
It is with this goal in mind that we initiated the research described in this report. Throughout our research we have heard from over 3000 teachers and nearly 4000 students in 150 countries, as well as experts from across the fields of education, research, science, technology, industry, government and more.
Teachers
Students
Countries
Our report focuses on four key themes:
1. How students perceive their readiness for the future, and the importance of helping them recognise the ways in which they are well prepared.
2. Why subject knowledge matters even more in the age of AI, and the importance of reframing its role in education for its value to be better appreciated.
3. The vital role of self-management skills in helping students to shape good habits and navigate complexity and uncertainty.
4. The urgency of addressing challenges young people have with communication and interpersonal skills, particularly handling difficult and important conversations.
Across the report’s four themes, we examine how students and teachers appreciate the ways AI and other digital technologies enhance teaching and learning, while also expressing concerns that these tools may fuel distraction, shorten attention spans and undermine critical thinking.
Our analysis highlights several priorities for action:
Explicit signposting of the skills students are developing through their learning, so that they can recognise the ways they are prepared for their future.
Reframe the role of subject knowledge as an enabler to the development of skills (not an equivalent to information) and vital for sparking students' curiosity and engagement with learning.
Emphasise oracy – a set of skills involved in using spoken language – as vital for students to become effective communicators and build meaningful relationships.
Create space to support students in developing self-management skills so they can navigate the uncertainty they feel about the future.
Strengthen the role of school as a place to build purposeful connections.
International education provides a powerful context in which to address these priorities. Why? Because its communities are inherently diverse, encompassing countless combinations of contexts: state and independent schools; students who have lived their whole lives in one place or in several different countries; fully international programmes, or blended national and international curricula.
More families around the world are choosing international education because of the opportunities it can offer to live, work and study in different countries (with qualifications trusted by top universities and employers worldwide), to become fluent in English, and to develop a truly global outlook. Many also value the fact that an international curriculum has been road-tested in multiple regions, improved over time and offers a robust framework for learning.
This diversity makes international education a natural space for innovation. It is in such an environment that schools can put these priorities into practice – signposting skills, reframing subject knowledge, strengthening oracy, supporting self-management and fostering connections – in ways that better prepare students to navigate the future.
Through our long-standing work with over 50 national governments, we have learned to take great care before transferring lessons learned in one context to another, avoiding the risks of blunt ‘policy borrowing’. At the same time, we welcome the chance to share what we are learning in international education with a wider education community.
The research we present in this report builds on our experience. It has given us a deeper insight into how students and educators are experiencing change. Together with our community of teachers, schools and partners, and everyone who has joined this conversation, we hope that educators will now be better equipped at navigating the future and preparing learners to thrive in a changing world.
"My wish for students is that their learning will help them find what their passion is and where they can make a difference in this world. My wish for educators is that they can become a good coach, a good mentor, a good facilitator so they can provide the environments for students to find what they love."
Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)