Excerpts from The Wall Street Journal’s article:

“The Business Roundtable, whose members include the chief executives of many big U.S. companies, is the latest organization to recognize one of the economy’s biggest challenges: an underskilled workforce.

Now, a report from Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp.'s Center for the Future of Work shows the shortcomings of the American education system extending beyond K-12 classrooms to the halls of higher education and corporate boardrooms. The survey of more than 800 business and higher-education executives finds agreement that teaching artificial-intelligence and robotics skills should be prioritized.

But both doubted their fields' ability to handle the task. Among higher-education executives, 80% said they were concerned about "educators’ skills and abilities to prepare their students for the jobs of the future.” Meanwhile, 73% of business executives said they worried about “their leaders’ skills and abilities to handle new types of work driven by emerging digital technologies."

When it comes to teaching human-centric "soft" skills such as flexibility, empathy and creativity—increasingly critical as machines transform or eradicate traditional jobs—both sides point fingers. Sixty-nine percent of the college administrators said it was the business community's responsibility to teach these skills, while 70% of business executives said they expected those skills to be learned in higher-education institutions.”

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