In an operational environment that changes continuously the classical education cannot last for a lifetime anymore. To face this challenge, the educational programmes should be diversified to include futures studies from an earlier learning stage, in order to provide pupils and students with the necessary tools to anticipate the future and choose a learning path that fulfils their development needs. In that way, the requirement to anticipate possible changes could provide the ability to adapt quickly and overcome the potential drawbacks determined by a lack of skills and competences of the future workforce. One objective of future studies could be also to produce super-forecasters for sensitive areas such as security and defence. Future studies facilitate the examination of possible developments in the future based on current knowledge and logical reasoning, allowing the study of postulating possible, probable and preferable futures. Even though the future remains unpredictable, there are some potential developments of the present reality or alternatives of the future that can be thought of. Therefore, as far as the future is unpredictable, only some potential developments of the present reality or alternatives of the future can be thought of. Apparently, there are few options at hand: do nothing, try to prepare for the future or try to shape the future actively.Forecasting and foresight are powerful tolls in the panoply of futures studies and, even though initially these concepts were used equivalently, there is a real difference between them. This paper will explain some of these differences along with an example of a good forecasting strategy, in an attempt to stimulate how to think about the future and then act decisively to create it.

future studies; forecast; technology foresight; predictive analysis; PYTHIA.