Teaching creative thinking is needed in primary schools to help prevent people being replaced by robots.
While the subject is being taught in university, it needs to be introduced much earlier at primary schools for best results, according to a leading university professor.
Professor Diane Brand, Dean of the Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries at the University of Auckland, says students are being encouraged through the courses to be creatively "rebellious" to help meet the predicted future dominance of artificial intelligence (AI).
Her comments come as studies here and overseas forecast that nearly half of all jobs are at risk from robots over the next 10 to 20 years. A New Zealand Institute of Economic Research study suggests up to 46 per cent of all current jobs are at "high risk" of disappearing (including some high-skilled workers such as managers and accountants); similar figures are predicted in the US.
Brand says with all the talk of the changing face of employment and robots taking jobs, creative thinking is an essential skill for all students, both as future employees and entrepreneurs.
Through creative or "studio" teaching methods, students can grow attributes making them less able to be replaced entirely by machines - and should ensure they have rich and meaningful lives.
She says creative "rebellion" is a way of thinking that challenges the status quo, pushes boundaries and generates new ideas: "It's a core characteristic of a creative arts and industries education, where new concepts and processes drive originality and innovative thinking," she says.
Arts and creative industries provide an essential platform for an entrepreneurial culture. Research and experience suggests, she says, there are three key elements - capital, know-how (ideas, commercial expertise and talent) and "rebellion".
Already being taught at universities (in architecture, design, dance, fine arts, music and planning), creative thinking can also be combined with technologically-focused disciplines such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
"All our graduates need to be technologically savvy, creatively agile and possess a range of soft skills such as good communication, perseverance, sociability and curiosity to be fit for the career disruptions of the fourth industrial revolution and the dominance of artificial intelligence," Brand says.
"A person entering the workforce in the future with both creative and technological capabilities will be more resilient to change and will probably enjoy a more varied and challenging career than his or her parents.
"Creativity not only supports career options but adds a profound dimension of delight to the journey into the future."
Creative thinking courses have been introduced to many top international universities like Stanford and corporates such as Apple, Pepsi, Umpqua (finance), Innova (Peru's private primary school system), plus the Kahn Academy (open-access online education) - many of which target executive business programmes or postgraduate students.
"For the best results," she says, "this form of education needs a much earlier integration into curriculums, ideally as early as primary school."
Brand says while technology can create jobs, nations with a higher proportion of their workforce doing routine jobs will be more impacted by future AI developments.
"Nordic countries are well ahead of us," she says. "They have discovered investing heavily in education, the arts, music and culture over an extended period stimulates entrepreneurial revolution and contributes to long term economic success.
"From meat producers teaming up with top chefs to create 'the Golden Room' line of high-end products, to advanced digital media platforms allowing musicians to sell their music directly to fans, they have successfully embraced creative thinking to add value to numerous products and services."
New Zealand should follow this example but promoting creative thinking "requires thought processes and teaching methods which differ from the historical mainstream".
As well as adopting creative "rebellion", students should combine diverse areas of knowledge to address problems with multiple possible outcomes rather than seeking precise solutions. Teaching should be practical, collaborative and workshop or studio-based, while students ought to be taught to understand the end-user - to think laterally, consider and practice multiple solutions.
"Flipped learning - where classrooms are for experimentation and homework is for learning facts - achieve similar results. There also needs to be more adaptive and continuous learning in small units to help people up-skill or adapt to career changes."
While universities face challenges in introducing these types of changes on a large scale, she believes there must be greater collaboration between universities and industry in the future with more "live" or real projects - with lasting change probably springing from employer dissatisfaction with "business as usual".