Foresight: A Unique (possibly crazy) Course of Study

The UH Foresight program made it onto a list of 25 unique and possibly crazy courses of study put out by “The Best Schools.” They say their aim “is to help you gain the knowledge, skills, and credentials you need to achieve personal happiness and career success. To that end, we research and write primarily about online and on-campus colleges & universities, which include undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, and post-doc programs.”

There are certainly “safer” career paths to choose than foresight. No argument there. I find that in talking prospective students, those who ask for the metrics on job placement rates tend to choose something else; and those who are turned on and excited about influencing the future, tend to enroll. One of the benefits for us is that we typically have highly motivated students who want to learn, not just get a piece of paper.

So, yes it’s a little risky. At the same time, as we move into a future where more and more knowledge work is being automated, one could argue that a unique course of study may actually be the smarter play! Take a look at the core skills that we say are essential to good futures work:

• Critical thinking
• Integrative thinking
• Systems thinking
• Creative thinking
• Facilitating & communicating
• Designing

And there are jobs — check out some recent listings.

Indeed, here is a summary of what we believe our foresight education experience is all about.

From Day One we want you to be thinking about how you are going to use your educational experience in foresight. Be thinking about what works for you. What are you drawn to? A method? tool? A particular thinker? An Organization? Do you want to be consulting futurist? An insider or organizational futurist? Or a “futurizer,” where foresight is secondary to your profession, but you work to spread the foresight message? Learn what works for you. Each of you brings different skills, capabilities, and needs to the table, so it’s important to customize what you learn to what suits you going forward.

We want to build an experience for you that extends beyond just the classroom. This fall, for instance, we’re participating in an online game. We’re having a futures classic book club meeting at my house on an October Saturday morning. We have our Annual Spring Gathering of students, alumni, and friends and this is a great time for our virtual students to visit. We participate in the APF Gathering each spring and the WFS Assembly in the summer. And we’d like to do more.

We are building up our research capability to provide students an opportunity to get hands-on project experience. There’s no better way to prepare for project work in the future than practice in the present. There are also opportunities to do interesting research on your own. Besides the Master’s project, there are independent study options, and many students have used their class projects as a foundation for building thought leadership on their topic. We encourage our students to speak and publish. Our students routinely speak at the APF and WFS conference. Our students have regularly won awards for their written projects for the APF Student Recognition Program.

So, for those of you thinking about it, come join us! We’ve got work to do, and it’s important! — Andy Hines