{"id":155683,"date":"2018-09-13T16:07:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T15:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/?p=155683"},"modified":"2018-09-13T16:07:01","modified_gmt":"2018-09-13T15:07:01","slug":"fa3-the-future-of-work-is-childs-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en-ie\/making-a-difference-en-ie\/education-en-ie\/fa3-the-future-of-work-is-childs-play\/","title":{"rendered":"The Future of Work is Child\u2019s Play"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Future of Work is Child\u2019s Play <\/strong><\/p>\n

In his very famous TED talk,<\/a> Sir Ken Robinson argued that education needed to focus on stimulating creativity and imagination to equip future generations for a rapidly changing world.<\/p>\n

As part of our Surface Go launch, Microsoft asked Irish parents about how they viewed imagination, creativity, outdoor play and school\u2019s importance in their children\u2019s education. \u00a0This builds on our research conducted in December 2017 of 1,000 Irish girls and young women which explored the connection between creativity and an interest in STEM subjects and careers in STEM. This research found that the more creative they consider themselves to be, the more they can imagine pursuing a career in a STEM-related field.<\/p>\n

85% of Irish parents see \u2018creativity and imagination\u2019 as being just as important for a child\u2019s development as literacy and numeracy\u2019, while 73% agree an \u2018entrepreneurial spirit\u2019 is crucial.<\/p>\n

Parents recognised that a focus on creativity has a direct impact on the importance placed on creativity in the workplace and day to day life. 72% of Irish parents see their job to be in some way creative, compared to just 45% for their parents (today\u2019s grandparents).<\/p>\n

Parents today consider their children the most creative people in the family (41%) and are just as likely to be proud of their children for creative achievements as physical or \u2018traditional\u2019 ones. For example, parents are more likely to be proud of their child for \u2018writing an imaginative story\u2019 (56%) than they are for \u2018solving a complex maths equation\u2019 (45%) or \u2018winning a sports prize\u2019 (49%).<\/p>\n

But there are some creative differences emerging in how parents encourage creativity versus the subjects they see as important.<\/p>\n

For example, Irish parents rate creative subjects as bottom of the pile in importance. The most important subjects for parents are Maths (71%), English (54%), and Science (43%), with the least important being Music (9%), Art and Design (7%), and Drama (5%).<\/p>\n

When parents were asked what careers, they wanted for their children, medicine was chosen as the number one career choice, as chosen by over a fifth (22%) of parents Information Technology a close second (21%), and law in third place at 15%.\u00a0\u00a0Encouragingly, most Irish parents don\u2019t mind what career their child follows as long as they are happy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

State of play <\/strong><\/p>\n

Irish parents see the benefit of after school activities when it comes to their children\u2019s development \u2013 with nine out of ten parents saying an out of school activity is as beneficial as a day at school. 43% thought this would involve a day of outdoor activities such as hide-and-seek or climbing a tree, whilst a day at a museum or gallery (36%), a cultural holiday (37%), an adventure holiday (33%), and a day exploring a new area (33%) also featured strongly.\u00a0\u00a0 The average Irish child does 1.7 extracurricular activities a week \u2013 younger children are more likely to do two per week while ages 7-16 will most likely do just one per week.<\/p>\n

But we also found that a significant 90% of children are now using the internet to help with real world, outdoor play. For example, 33% use it to find out more about animals or insects they have seen, 31% look up places they want to go to nearby, and 31% use it when arranging to meet up with friends.<\/p>\n

In a world with a growing digital culture, technology and outdoor play don\u2019t have to be mutually exclusive \u2013 it\u2019s all about enabling people to search and discover real world activities. Parents can encourage their children to embrace creative subjects \u2013 and with technology, they can create a very promising future in a continually transforming world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Future of Work is Child\u2019s Play In his very famous TED talk, Sir Ken Robinson argued that education needed to focus on stimulating creativity and imagination to equip future generations for a rapidly changing world. As part of our Surface Go launch, Microsoft asked Irish parents about how they viewed imagination, creativity, outdoor play […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":155699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"class_list":["post-155683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-none-en-ie","specials-making-a-difference-en-ie","verticalIndustries-education-en-ie","stories-education-en-ie","stories-how-to-prepare-for-the-future-en-ie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en-ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en-ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en-ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en-ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en-ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155683"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en-ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156025,"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en-ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155683\/revisions\/156025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en-ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en-ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulse.microsoft.com\/en-ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}