With 40% of employers around the world reporting a talent shortage, it has become an important recruitment strategy to look towards the future. The employees of tomorrow, are the students of today. The environment in which our children are taught, influences the success of our economy in years to come.

Design influences levels of interaction and engagement. Engagement and active learning improve retention — Herman Miller

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) asserts that anticipating the future of technological developments is something we are unable to do. However, we can make sure that we accommodate the changes through design.

NBBJ is an architecture firm based in Seattle, Washington who has worked with Google and Amazon.  What makes NBBJ unique? Through computational data, the company is able to anticipate how the occupants of a building will experience the space they inhabit. Data enables NBBJ to track all possible ways in which employees can travel through the office space in order to create a design that fosters collaboration.

In this age of disruption, the National Education Association is preparing the new workforce to think creatively through incorporating classrooms that are seminar-style with round tables and offering dry erase whiteboards in hallways, or Scrabble and LEGO walls.

While funding for education has remained flat, the US Census Bureau rates education construction as one of the largest segments of nonresidential construction. To bridge the talent gap, CEOs are making it a strategic priority to invest in education.