Faith’s facilitators presented a scenario which helped further allay her fears. In a future where robots can be programmed to detect tumors more quickly than doctors, this earlier detection may be progress, but receiving a cancer diagnosis from a robot may feel heartless. Here enters the human skills (or what the National Association of Colleges and Employers calls “career competencies”), which are the key to the future of work: empathy, emotional intelligence, written and verbal communication, adaptability and resilience, curiosity, critical thinking and problem solving, and logical reasoning. As the FoWI facilitators highlighted, these human skills help build our human capabilities of empathetic listening, collaboration, growth mindset, and applied creativity. While the robot may help, the ability to communicate with patients in an empathetic and caring manner remains the work of a human.

Through a series of interactive modules, participants explored these and other topics during a two-day bootcamp experience, supplemented by two virtual workshops on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. Modules guided participants through activities that focused on examining their working style and preferences, imagining their ideal workplace, and practicing their public speaking by rethinking existing jobs while considering the possibilities of the future. To complete the experience, Deloitte US Consulting CEO Dan Helfrich will be the keynote speaker at the Fall 2022 graduation ceremony where participants will receive a micro-credential that certifies their participation in the Institute.

Taylor Myers, an SOE online graduate student, was grateful for Anderson's guidance and the experience in general. "The Institute taught me about how work, workers, and the workplace are evolving. It was an opportunity to connect with facilitators from Deloitte, career services personnel from AU, and other AU Eagles who are striving to make our society work a little bit better for everyone. We finished the third lab session less than 48 hours ago, but I've already applied what I learned about preferred working styles into two meetings today," Myers said. 

“I want an economy and education system that work for everyone, communities and countries that are safe and filled with peace, and a workforce that’s being effectively utilized; I believe I can use what I learned from the Institute to help move us closer to those aims. I very much enjoyed being in an in-person, interdisciplinary cohort. I’ll carry the fellowship, knowledge, and skills from this past weekend with me for a long time.”