WITH technology rapidly changing the world we live, there is a danger that by the time today’s students finish school, what they have learned will be obsolete.

Now one Bradford-based group is pushing for more to be done to prepare the current generation for the “fourth industrial revolution.”

Dr John Baruch runs e4i4 - Education for the 4th Industrial Revolution, and believes the country risks falling into a situation where an entire generation of young people are not equipped for the world of tomorrow.

Based at the Design Exchange in Little Germany, his work calls for Bradford to better prepare for a future where many jobs will carried out by robots.

He fears that the UK is falling behind the rest of the world - saying countries like China are far further ahead preparing for the next industrial revolution.

A recent poll of business leaders found that up to four million jobs in the British private sector could be replaced by robots in the next decade - meaning children currently in primary school face a future where they will have to compete harder than any generation before them for jobs.

Innovations like driverless cars, drone deliveries and robotic production lines mean humans many no longer be needed for many service jobs.

Dr Baruch, who initially set up the group in Leeds Beckett University was recently made a visiting professor at the Innovation Centre of Tsinghua University in Beijing, often called the Chinese Cambridge.

He said that so far China has been much more receptive to his work than the UK. Although a Parliamentary Committee has been set up to look at how the UK could cope with the revolution, Mr Baruch says very little has so far been achieved.

He told the Telegraph & Argus: “It will require us to adopt a completely different way of thinking.

“It is getting to the point where robots and AI can do many jobs much better than humans.

“People finish university expecting to end up with a good job, but with increased automation there may not be the jobs anymore.

“What we really want is to get people thinking about the new economy, and educating them and better educating them on the way they can deal with it.

“As it is a lot of people will finish university on zero hours contracts or part time jobs. You can’t buy a house if you only work 10 or 15 hours a week.

“We’re looking to make West Yorkshire a leader in how the country prepares for the 4th industrial revolution. We’re currently providing our kids with education, but not exactly what they will need for the future.”

He said Bradford had a significant role in previous industrial revolutions, with figures such as factory reformer Richard Oastler, and in education, and is pushing for the city to repeat this history.

As well as pushing for improved education, Dr Baruch, who worked with the University of Bradford for 25 years, is lobbying for better links between Yorkshire and other countries and for West Yorkshire to position itself as a tech-friendly centre.

He hopes that by encouraging business like driverless car testing facilities to come to the area, it could provide top jobs future generations would need.