What is it to learn for an unknown future? It might be said that the future has always been unknown but this question surely takes on a new pedagogical challenge in the contemporary age. Generic skills may seem to offer the basis of just such a learning for an unknown future. Generic skills, by definition, are those that surely hold across manifold situations, even unknown ones. In this article, the author suggests that the idea of skills, even generic skills, is a cul-de-sac. In contrast, the way forward lies in construing and enacting a pedagogy for human being. In other words, the author argues that learning for an unknown future has to be a learning understood neither in terms of knowledge or skills but of human qualities and dispositions. Learning for an unknown future calls, in short, for an ontological turn. The author suggests that the educational tasks of learning for the unknown are themselves twofold. On the one hand, there is the educational task of preparing students for a complex world. On the other hand, there is the educational task of coming to a position where one can prosper in a situation of multiple interpretations. (Contains 1 figure.)