PREPARING FOR THE EMERGING GEOSCIENCE WORK DYNAMICS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION, TODAY

Over 90% of U.S. geoscientists work outside of academia with half working in the professional services sector. The end of the pandemic coincided with rapid improvements in at-edge sensing and computing, such as drones, as well as critical advances in AI with the development of attention-focus architectures that are transforming the nature of geoscience work. Persistent workplace labor shortages and skill gaps are accelerating new technology applications, such as drones and AI, to improve efficiencies but at the same time are also reducing many entry-level and mid-skill positions. These advances are primarily reducing data management time which in turn allows geoscientists the time to focus on harder geoscience problems. Therein lies the challenge for the next generation.

The 2021 Vision and Change report recommends key developmental competences needed for the next generation of geoscientists, yet many geoscience programs still prepare students for tasks and jobs that are being replaced by technological advances. The new world of work demands well-developed critical thinking skills, numeracy, quantitative thinking skills, multidisciplinary synthesis, agility in dealing with social and political dynamics, and attention to externalities such as regulatory requirements. Geoscience programs can and need to be intentional across the curriculum to develop these “higher order” traits alongside core domain expertise. Students need the capabilities to address increasingly complex problems as well as the ability to understand the technological advances that enable this complex problem-solving. Numeracy and quantitative thinking and related skills are needed; modern AI models are statistical decision machines and understanding the underlying principles are critical to evaluate the results and further develop their efficacy. Additionally, employers have identified deficiencies related to resilience in new graduates in the face of challenging or potentially imperfect solutions. Geoscience programs need to expose students to ambiguous and resource-constrained problems so they gain experience and confidence with developing sufficient answers. Geoscience programs are well placed to integrate these skills across the curriculum, and in doing so will yield clear demonstrable value to students and graduates in a time of skepticism about higher education.