Insight: Creative problem-solving skills are key to tomorrow’s jobs, but today’s curricula are leaving students behind, Adobe

Adobe has released a global research study on the importance of teaching creative problem solving skills to students to ensure their success in tomorrow’s workplace. In researching Creative Problem Solving in Schools: Essential Skills Today’s Students Need for Jobs in Tomorrow’s Age of Automation, Adobe surveyed 2,000 educators and policymakers from the U.K., Japan, Germany and the U.S., and learned how the people shaping education and students’ experiences view creative problem solving as a critical skillset.

Overwhelmingly, three quarters of respondents predicted that professions which require creative problem solving skills are less likely to be adversely impacted by automation, underscoring the urgent need for these skills to be taught in the classroom to prepare students for jobs of the future. Yet, the study also identified that the current lack of access to relevant tools and technologies is one of the biggest barriers to teaching these skills in schools today.

To give educators and students the tools and support they most need to address this gap, Adobe has also announced changes to improve accessibility and foster creative problem solving curricula for students and education institutions. First, Adobe Spark, a fun and frictionless creative storytelling application, will be made free to every student globally. And for the first time, all students—including those under 13—can access Creative Cloud both on their school and home devices with the same easy-to-use log-in credentials. Educators can also now choose from more than 20 free collaborative courses taught by their peers, explore other professional resources and discover a community of 450,000 creative educators who are ready to share best practices and help boost creative problem solving and digital literacy.

“There is a clear gap between what educators and policymakers know tomorrow’s workforce needs, and what today’s students are learning in school,” said Tacy Trowbridge, global lead, Education Programs, Adobe. “Educators, policymakers and industry—technology in particular—need to come together to improve opportunities for students. Creative technologies can help educators teach and nurture critically important ‘soft’ skills, and policies and curricula need to evolve to complete the equation.”

To help foster the teaching of creative problem solving and improve accessibility for education institutions to its creative tools and services, Adobe announced three new Creative Cloud and Spark offerings, starting in April 2018:

1. Spark Premium will be available to all schools and universities at no cost in April. Spark is a storytelling service for use across web and mobile, and is regularly used by teachers to help students build their storytelling skills and improve their confidence in their own creative abilities.
2. For the first time, students under the age of 13 can be granted access to Creative Cloud services, consistent children’s privacy regulations.
3. New School I.D. integration offers single sign-on, enabling students to use their school identification to log into Creative Cloud apps at school or at home. This gives students the freedom they need to create, discover and learn outside of the classroom.

The full study findings can be found here