WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD...
...FOR THE TYPICAL CAREER path of workers? How will it affect their work and personal life?
THE CASE ILLUSTRATES SOME OF THE BARRIERS AND OPPORTUNITIES THAT PEOPLE MIGHT FACE AS THE NATURE OF WORK CHANGES.
To better understand the associated trials and tribulations, this example explores the future career path of a fictional woman, Anna, who faces potential challenges and shows how she overcomes these tests by utilizing a few of the tools and solutions available in the future.
After high school, Anna explores education alternatives. Anna looks closely at universities such as Minerva, which focus on active learning and interdisciplinary academics. Here, she learns 21st century skills such as creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and a sense of autonomy.
Anna’s job position is under threat from outside disruption. Together with coworkers, Anna uses online platforms like Coworker.org to organize and push management to modify and adapt to changing work conditions. Platforms such as Coworker. org create a space for coworkers to stand together and work with the company to create and implement mutually beneficial, constructive change.
As the company adopts new technology, Anna’s responsibilities change As responsibilities in her position shift due to digitalization, Anna learns new skills and updates old ones through online learning platforms such as Udemy.com. Online platforms allow her to establish and adapt new skills to solve concrete problems quickly and invest in her own learning as she continues to upskill.
After losing her job to automation, Anna wishes to switch industries Seeing her position within the industry soon coming to an end, Anna chooses to shift career completely by attaining a new, online degree such as those available on Udacity. This move to upscale allows Anna to combine her current job with her new education, creating a smoother transition between career paths.
Anna wants more professional freedom In order to have a more flexible workload, Anna chooses to work freelance and selectively obtain clients through online freelance marketplaces like Upwork. Through these online gig-economy portals, Anna can plan and scale her workload based on personal needs and availability
To reflect her upskilling efforts, Anna wishes to strengthen her CV
Anna strives to improve communication and collaboration with her clients
To optimize her CV, Anna chooses online learning platforms such as LinkedIn Learning, where she can acquire new skills and receive completion certificates. The platform enables Anna to combine learning time slots with her schedule and regularly update her CV with the successfully completed certificates and courses.
To better communicate with a wide range of clients from around the world, Anna’s company gathers them together on one of the online collaboration platforms like Slack. The available tools enable her to effectively collaborate with many clients in one place, across projects and time zones.
To meet client demands, Anna needs broadly skilled workers On behalf of her employer, Anna chooses to look for employees outside the formal education system and investigates alternative institutions like 42 schools. To fulfill client demands for capable workers, she finds qualified candidates with both the soft and hard skills which her company needs.
The industry is changing and all employees need to change with it
Anna wants to foster collaboration and competitiveness among coworkers Using gamified platforms like HackerRank, Anna creates new, participatory learning opportunities for her employees. The internal focus on competitiveness and learning allows Anna to increase collaboration and the scope of learning on the job and outside the office.
Training new workers quickly and effectively As business expands, more workers need specific training in order to prepare for a variety of situations. By using a virtual training tool like StriVR, the company is able to quickly train workers to anticipate and handle a multitude of problems and hard to manage situations before they occur.
Anna introduces learning tools like Cerego, creating engaging learning material to increase time efficiencies by focusing on improving how levels of the organization learn. This provides deeper insight into the learning process across the organization allowing both employees and employers to more easily focus on upskilling needs.
Which changes will the future bring? Technological advancements and increased globalization are creating innovative possibilities for learning, leadership and the workforce. These opportunities are expanding existing work conditions and will allow for a more varied approach to the future of work. The following nine topics of learning, workforce and leadership indicate some of the prevalent trends identified in Silicon Valley.
TRADITIONAL Learning happens inside formal institutions and as part of a larger, often years-long education.
PERSONAL Learning is a personal, autonomous experience.
ALTERNATIVE Learning comes in a variety of unbundled forms – personalized to meet individual needs.
SOCIAL Learning happens in a social context while collaborating with peers.
STATIC Learning is tied to a physical place, specific times and
FLEXIBLE Learning happens as a dynamic part of life and
formal structures.
can happen regardless of time or place.
AUTOMATION
AUGMENTATION
Work is replaced by technologies that outperform humans,
Work is enhanced by technologies that support hu-
making tasks or entire jobs obsolete.
man tasks and create broader options for workers.
PERMANENT Work is static and locally anchored, workers have a few multiple-year jobs within similar industries.
HARD SKILLS Work is predictable and requires teachable, hard skills that are quantifiable through formal degrees or certificates.
SPECIALIZED Leadership is suited for special tasks that require in-depth knowledge, leaders direct teams based on their strengths.
LOCAL Leadership is anchored locally, leaders plan and act in the context of national challenges and opportunities.
FOCUSED Leadership is clearly defined, leaders focus on key areas of an organization.
TEMPORARY Work is flexible and exists online and internationally, workers have many shorter jobs in a broader range of industries.
SOFT SKILLS Work is dynamic and changing, and relies on softer skills that are harder to quantify, such as teamwork, patience and creativity.
GENERAL Leadership is broad and covers many tasks, leaders must quickly adapt to a multitude of tasks.
GLOBAL Leadership must encompass a more agile, global workforce; leaders work within an awareness of global trends and drivers.
FRAGMENTED Leadership must bridge multiple organizational areas, leaders cover larger complex organizational structures.