What did you want to be when you grew up?

This is perhaps rather an outmoded question, isn’t it, more suited to a “jobs for life” culture. What occupations can people choose that aren’t going to disappear over the next 25 years or so. If Uber has its way automated vehicles will put paid to many taxi and lorry drivers for a start.

One opinion is that the safest jobs will be those requiring some degree of entrepreneurial skills, “creating value by moving resources out of less productive areas and into more productive ones. The people who gather the skills, flexibility, charisma, temperament, capital, and relationships to navigate the choppy waters of automation (and consequently stay on the right side of the automator/automated divide) and seize whatever opportunities present themselves in this weird new world, will be the ones who avoid drowning.”

This is more a list of soft skills and a way to behave than an occupation to follow or an idea of qualifications to acquire. The lure of being an entrepreneur is clear if you consider that Quora has posted over 90,000 questions to do with Entrepreneurship. What kind of an education is going to prepare school and college leavers to enter such a flexible and dynamic workplace? What skills and knowledge will be most regarded by employers, or by investors for those starting their own business? The fast pace of change in business methods and tools mean the challenges will continue, requiring lifelong learning for many more of us.

By contrast, Quora has posted just over 500 questions under their Future of Work heading. Is that perhaps because the generic ‘future of work’ is too daunting and complex a subject for many people to consider? We have gathered some of the world’s finest thought leaders to talk on these topics and generate much debate and discussion at Day 5 of CSW Europe 2016 in the city of Brussels on November 25, a themed day covering Future of Work, Education and Entrepreneurship. The program is designed to emphasize cross-disciplinary learning, presenting perspectives from a wide range of public and private sectors together on a single stage.

The conference is for everyone from startups and entrepreneurs to C-Suite level, government and not-for-profit executives who want to explore best practices in crowdsourcing and the collaborative economy that are fundamentally changing society, mindsets and possibilities across whole industries. There will be no long and drawn-out presentations. By contrast, expect rapid-fire speaker sessions and lively panel discussions every day, with interactive breakouts designed for maximum enjoyment, impact, and learning. You can see a full Agenda and tickets are available now.

Our Premier Partner this day is KU Leuven, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, also known as University of Leuven in Flanders, Belgium. Their R&D Business Development Manager Dr. Martin Hinoul – a technology entrepreneur, academician and prolific author – will talk on Higher Education and Employability from the perspective that in a knowledge driven economy the opportunities for jobs are unlimited.

A panel session will discuss Is Our Current Education System in Line with the Future of Work? There is a perception of a growing misalignment in Europe between the education programmes and the jobs market. What needs to change, and how will it happen? Taking part will be Alan Barrell, a bioscientist turned businessman turned investor and entrepreneur who is also a professor at Cambridge University, and journalist Karl Van den Broeck.

From Joe Griston, Director of People & Talent at Freelancer.com we will learn how numerous small businesses and startups have used innovative crowdsourcing techniques to help their organisations grow. His session is titled Crowdsourcing Innovation, The NASA Narrative. Freelancer.com is a platform where people almost anywhere in the world can find work and run businesses. Many are running a successful business where before they were struggling. Many are working in large expensive cities and are supplementing their income to be able to live happily. Some have housed their families for the first time because they can now get access to work. Some run companies with hundreds of employees on the platform. Even NASA crowdsources work through Freelancer.com.

The week-long CSW Europe 2016 will be the largest gathering of the continent’s most innovative crowdsourcing minds and leading practitioners of crowd-based business models and solutions to so many of today’s – not tomorrow’s – educational, workplace and social community issues. Here is a full Agenda and you can register for tickets now to be part of it. Come and join us.