Peninsula Personnel

3 days ago

Future of work: how today’s iso babies will work and learn in 2038Futurists, researchers, and training experts predict very different jobs and skills will be in demand when today’s newborns finish high school in 2038.Pause. In about 18 years, today’s newborns – dubbed the iso babies – will be entering the workforce for the first time. The jobs they do, the skills they need, and the way they work and learn will likely be very different. Experts share their predictions and their advice for parents of children born amid the COVID-19 pandemic.HOW WILL THEY WORK?By 2038, people will work longer hours than ever before. That is the prediction of futurist Morris Miselowski, who has been working alongside employment marketplace SEEK to uncover future key trends. “I’m not saying the future generations will be in the office longer hours than now,” he says. “But due to technology advances it is harder to leave work behind.” Miselowski predicts 60 per cent of the population will also be working in more than one role. ________________________________________ ________________________________________“In the past, the social norm was to have one job, whereas our children will soon have a number of jobs at any given time,” he says. “By 2038, our children will be planning for 80-plus years of career and 100-plus years of life.”WHAT JOBS WILL THEY DO?Miselowski expects many future jobs will be focused on food creation as the population continues to grow and the world must find new ways to keep up with demand for food.“Roles in this industry will include 4D-printed food technician, cultured meat scientist, synthetic food designer, food-as-medicine nutritionist and food bank logistic officer,” The futurist also forecasts jobs in the energy sector will develop as society becomes more energy efficient and jobs in transport and logistics will increase as people change the way they get around. “Owning a car and having a driver’s licence will not be the norm for a teenager in 2038,” he says.“Instead, they’ll expect their tech to autonomously organise a ride share, hire them a bike, book and pay for public transport, provide walking directions or provide options on how to get there.” The largest increase in jobs, however, is expected in health. “As we are living for longer, there is going to be a shift in the typical health practices, and the focus will be on wellness and self-care jobs, along with new technology advances in these areas,” he says.Miselowski does not predict any industries will disappear altogether but expects a significant decrease in physical and manual jobs as well as administrative jobs such as bookkeeping, filing roles and clerks. “These types of routine jobs will no longer be required to be done by humans,” he says. Futurist Michael McQueen, who was keynote speaker at the Professional Speakers Australia convention this month, says artificial intelligence is already taking over a lot of functions in law and accounting. He says the jobs that will not be affected will be those that require resilience, creativity, and the ability to negotiate.WHICH SKILLS WILL BE NEEDED?Miselowski says the human skills that will be most important for today’s iso babies are communication, empathy, imagination, creativity, wisdom, and the ability to collaborate with others. But human skills will not be the only skills in demand. It finds 64 per cent of Australian workers currently apply digital skills in their job and about one in five apply “advanced” digital skills – such as the ability to customise digital solutions or create new digital tools, software, and applications. People will need to think of skills in two buckets – horizontal and vertical skills. “Horizontal skills are the ones that cut across different areas and technologies (such as) digital problem solving, digital ethics and digital project management,” he says. “These are the no-brainers all workers will need to develop going forward. “Vertical competencies are more technology specific (such as cloud architecture and cybersecurity) and more likely to change. “You’ll need the combination of both to be competitive in the future.” QUALITIES TO INSTIL IN ISO BABIES IN THE COMING YEARSCapacity for calm and confidence. Every message since COVID has been “Be careful, don’t touch” as they are wired to think it is a dangerous place. How do we combat that once the danger has passed? Connection with nature, as we are increasingly urbanised, we need that connection with nature and supply chains – rediscovering where food comes from and how farming and agriculture works. Creativity and imagination. When you have got artificial intelligence, a lot more of the transactional work is being done by technology, but what the tech cannot do is think creatively. Humans create, think, and ask questions and that is the most important skill anyone will need. Financial skills kids learning to save with physical money but in the last 12 months most of us have not been using cash. For this generation, everything is tap and go. We need to make sure children think of money as a physical and tangible thing. Empathy and body language skills. Particularly in a virtual environment with remote learning and work, getting a sense of what another person is thinking and communicating is a skill people will need even more. Ability to make small talk.These ... See MoreSee Less