What will Australia’s Education look like in 2030?

Education in Australia is evolving rapidly, shaped by the skills, technologies, and societal demands of each decade.

Understanding these waves gives insight into how schools will prepare students for the future of work.

The 2010s

The 2010s were defined by coding and robotics. Programs like General Assembly, Le Wagon, and Code Like a Girl emerged to equip students with technical skills that were quickly becoming essential.

Coding was more than a skill; it became a baseline for participating in a digital economy, and those who didn’t learn it risked being left behind.

The rise of the app economy, automation, and the startup culture made technical literacy visible, practical, and highly marketable.

This era taught schools the power of hands-on, applied learning, setting the stage for more experiential approaches in the decades to come.

The 2020s

By the 2020s, the focus had shifted from technical skills to entrepreneurship. Programs like Generation Entrepreneur gave students the opportunity to tackle real-world problems, pitch ideas, and start ventures.

Meanwhile, the startup ecosystem continued to grow with Blackbird Ventures, the rise of Startmate and new angel investors working across Australia and New Zealand.

This wave emphasized not just skills, but agency: students learned resilience, problem-solving, and self-directed learning in ways that a traditional classroom could not provide.

The entrepreneurship decade showed that learning by doing and building projects was as critical as mastering content, and it influenced the design of the next generation of schools.

The 2030s

Looking ahead to the 2030s, AI, VR, and AR are poised to define the next wave of education.

Some schools are already preparing: Melbourne High has appointed an AI Lead, while platforms like Year13 offer AI career coaches to guide students through emerging technologies.

Students will no longer simply consume content; they will need to create with, apply, and critically evaluate intelligent systems. Hardware improvements, accessible AI tools, and ongoing ethical challenges are driving schools to rethink what learning looks like, moving toward applied, experiential projects that teach both technical competence and responsible innovation.

In this new era, students will spend less time on rote instruction and more time experimenting, building, and iterating, gaining the skills and judgment they need for the workforce of the future.

Conclusion

Across these three decades, we see a clear trajectory: from coding in the 2010s, to entrepreneurship in the 2020s, to AI and hardware in the 2030s, Australian education is moving toward experiential, applied, and future-ready learning.

Students are no longer just absorbing knowledge; they are creating, experimenting, and innovating.

By developing agency, resilience, and the ability to navigate complex systems, schools are preparing young people for the demands of the modern, rapidly evolving workplace — and for the portfolio careers of tomorrow.