The Future of Education

New generations of citizens and workers have grown up alongside new technologies that they use to view their options, to communicate and decide. Because of this they implicitly expect and demand innovative learning models and languages. These new training tools should not however be limited only to so-called ‘digital natives’: the development of new skills and new ways of solving problems concerns all generations of workers. The continual need for knowledge updates, rapid analysis and response, flexibility and receptiveness to change and the integration of systems and persons is of prime importance for all types of organizations.

The approach, and mental and operative habits of those employed in highly digitalized environments cannot remain the same as they were for those employed in past workplaces: we must therefore develop what we call Digital Management Competencies (DMCs). In this contribution we will attempt to explain what is meant by DMCs by comparing them with similar concepts such as e-skills and e-leadership competencies that have been described in studies conducted by the European Community. We will focus on the importance of DMCs for current organizational models and for the future evolution of organizations. Developing this line of reasoning will lead us eventually to consider the broader concept of Work Maturity that currently needs to be reassessed in the light of the changes mentioned previously. In this way we will be able to explain a new type of maturity that we will call Digital Maturity.

In this paper we describe some examples of the use of Serious Games in company training, to demonstrate how these innovative tools meet the formative needs of a society and work environments that are undergoing profound change. Playing games is not only useful for developing skills and knowledge, it is also closely connected with the building of personal identity and is ‘interwoven’ with the construction of group and company culture. The potential SGs have for making a contribution to development of this kind undoubtedly represents one of the most interesting paths to explore in the future.