Merryn Somerset Webb

What do you think they are?

You're sending a kid to university today.

I mean, this is the question we get asked all the time.

So I'm going to get you to answer it.

You're sending a kid to university today.

What are you telling them to study?

Well, I'm not sure what's in the university.

I think the NEET rate for graduates is now higher than for A-level students.

Yeah, yeah.

So there'd be a question about whether that is the right thing.

Certainly the way it's been done historically, do I want a block of three years studying something that I've half thought about on my UCAS form?

But that's less clear to me.

What are the sets of capabilities?

that will best enable me to surf the waves of technology?

Well, a degree of job experience, I would say.

That penny, I think, is now dropping.

But the skills you accrete in the world of work, including how to work as a team, how to negotiate,

But those what are sometimes called softer skills, personal skills, social skills, are the ones that are least likely quickly to be replaced by machine.

And the self-same would be true of certain classes of creative skills.

So creativity, the wealth of creativity is –