13 minute read
Preparing You For The Workplace Of Tomorrow – Today
Making the 4th (and 5th!) Industrial Revolution work for you
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The world around us is changing, and if you don’t change with it, you will get left behind, writes Jamaine Krige. So, what can you do to prepare yourself for the workplace of the future, today?
By now, you know that the world you live in isn’t the same world your parents grew up in, and the nature of work is changing rapidly. It can be hard to plan for the future when none of us really knows what that future holds. Even experts who make a career from predicting future trends based on current trends admit that it’s hard to know what we don’t know yet! A couple of years ago, nobody would have known what you were on about if you said you were an Uber driver, a drone pilot or a blockchain engineer. You would have gotten funny looks if you told someone you were considering a career in virtual reality design, while artificial intelligence (AI) was something from sci-fi movies where machines take over the world. You couldn’t consider a career as a social
Jobs that existed 12 years ago but are now gone or disappearing Jobs that weren’t around 12 years ago but here today Jobs we can only imagine being around 12 years from now
Meter reader Blockchain engineer Quantum programmer
Switch board operator Mobile App developer Climate change scientist
Electronics assembler Sustainability manager Rocket design architect
Assembly line worker Cloud compuing specialist Space craft pilot
Video store manager/clerk AI/Big data analyst Blockchain crypto specialitst
Dictaphone operator Autonomous vehicle designer Cultured meat farmer
Film projectionist YouTube contnent creator Hazardous waste engineer
37% of businesses and organisations employ AI today.
However, for 28% of people, the human touch is still needed to get the job done.
More than 46%of Americans use voice-controlled virtual assistants.
Two in three Americans believe self-driving cars are safer than regular cars.
The AI industry will be earning $118 billion a year by 2025. So how can you prepare yourself for an uncertain future, and ensure that you will thrive in a job that might not even exist yet?
media manager or influencer in the year 2000 because MySpace hadn’t even been invented yet. Facebook also only came along in 2004!
Today, however, these are all viable career options that seemed unimaginable just a decade ago. So how can you prepare yourself for an uncertain future, and ensure that you will thrive in a job that might not even exist yet?
The automation of work will no doubt bring new levels of efficiency to all sectors and industries, which makes people worried that this could destroy a number of jobs. PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that within the next 15 years, 38% of jobs in the USA and 35% of jobs in Germany will be lost to automation.
The future of work is already here Saadia Zahidi, managing director of the World Economic Forum, says the future of work is no longer something that we can expect 10 years from now – the future of work is already here! The arrival of the
The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and
relearn.” – Alvin Toffler
workplace of the future was accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact it had on the way businesses operate.
According to the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Future of Jobs report, around 65% of children who are in primary school now will end up working in a job that doesn’t exist yet! In many industries and countries around the world, the 10 most in-demand occupations today didn’t even exist 5 or 10 years ago. Also, the changes that lie ahead are expected to happen even faster than before. That is why they say it’s important to be able to anticipate and prepare for the jobs and the workplace of tomorrow.
The WEF also estimates that by 2025, around 85 million jobs will be displaced or lost because of automation and the increasing capabilities of machines to do certain tasks. Despite this, they say there will be around 97 million new roles in the workplace that will emerge that are more suited to a workplace where humans share the workload with machines and algorithms. This means that the ‘robot revolution’ will actually create more jobs than it will destroy!
Unfortunately, the individuals and communities who will be most negatively affected by the changes to the world of work are likely to be those who are already most disadvantaged. If we don’t act quickly and equip people with the skills needed to survive in the workplace of the future, the inequalities in our country and in the world will be made worse by the impact of technology and the Covid-19 pandemic.
The job landscape of the future By the year 2025, around half of all employees in the workplace will need to reskill in order to keep doing their jobs, and the core skills needed to do the job will change for at least 40% of workers. Around 94% of business leaders say that employees will be expected to pick up new skills on the job.
Job landscape
By 2025, new jobs will emerge and others will be displaced by a shift in the division of labour between humans and machines, affecting:
Decreasing job demand
01 Data entry clerks 02 Administration and executive secretaries 03 Accounting, bookkeeping and payroll clerks 04 Accountants and auditors 05 Assembly and factory workers 06 Business services and administration managers 07 Client information and customer service workers 08 General and operations managers 09 Mechanics and machinery repairers 10 Material recording and stock keeping clerks
Growing job demand
01 Data analysts and scientists 02 AI and machine learning specialists 03 Big data specialists 04 Digital marketing and strategy specialists 05 Process automation specialists 06 Business development professionals 07 Digital transformation specialists 08 Information security specialists 09 Software and application developers 10 Internet of things specialists
The top 10 workplace skills of 2025 can be divided into four categories, namely:
• problem-solving • self-management • working with people • technology use and development. top 10
SKILLS OF 2025
01 Analytical thinking and innovation
02 Active learning and learning strategies
03 Complex problem-solving
04 Critical thinking and analysis
05 Creativity, originality, and initiative
06 Leadership and social influence
07 Technology design and programming
08 Technology design and programming
09 Resilience, stress tolerance, and flexibility
10 Reasoning, problem-solving, and ideation
Problem-solving Self-management Working with people Technology use and development Source: Future Jobs Report World Economic Forum
1ST
18-19th Century in Europe and North America, featuring steam engines 1870-1914, featuring steel, oil, electricity, and combustion engines 1880s Digital Revolution, featuring personal computers and the internet 21st Century advance of AI, big data, robotics, IoT, blockchain and crypto
Responsive 21st Century connection of innovation to purpose and industry
2ND 3RD 4TH 5TH
The Industrial Revolutions
What is the Fifth Industrial Revolution / Society 5.0?
While you’ve no doubt heard about the Fourth Industrial Revolution, experts now say it’s time to start preparing for the Fifth Industrial Revolution, or Society 5.0. But what does this mean? One definition is this: “a human-centred society that balances economic advancement while resolving social problems by a system that highly integrates cyberspace and physical space”.
During this industrial revolution, machines and humans will work together, transforming industry, accelerating technological advancements, and hopefully making the world a better place! This will be different from the industrial revolutions we’ve seen in the past. In the past, the trends leaned towards dehumanisation, technological advancement and innovation best practices. During this one, those advancements will be bent back towards the service of humanity, towards solving social problems, and building a more inclusive and prosperous society.
While technology and AI will help us, this new revolution places greater importance on human intelligence than ever before. We may see less repetitive and mundane tasks or jobs, but this will pave the way for curiosity, empathy and creativity. We will, therefore, need a special type of problem-solving judgement to ensure a balance between people and machines.
In Society 5.0, the way we look at work will change. It’s already changing! Companies are increasingly making use of freelancers and contractors, and it’s rare for an employee to work at one company for 40 years. The way employers look at their workers will also change, with a greater focus on humanity in the workplace and employee wellness, mental and physical health taking centre stage.
We know today that work isn’t something you go to every day; it’s something you do from wherever you are. People who will do well in this society are those who realise that while there may be fewer jobs, there will be more work to be done than ever before!
These jobs don’t exist… yet!
While it’s impossible to say for sure what the future will hold, we know that the world of work is changing quickly and drastically. If current trends hold, experts say these career paths are examples of what you could be doing in the future – if you start preparing for it today!
1Human-machine integration
specialist
In this role, you’ll be a team manager in charge of making sure the human employees and AI employees of a company communicate and work well together. This means you’ll need to understand both AI systems and human psychology to make sure that the office interactions and work relationships run smoothly.
2Drone professional Drones aren’t just popular for aviation enthusiasts or filmmakers anymore – they are used to deliver medicines and food, count livestock on farms, and can be integrated into security systems. And there won’t just be opportunities for drone operators or pilots – there will be a need for drone fleet managers, drone mechanics and repairmen, as well as air traffic controllers.
3Augmented reality journey builder Augmented reality (AR) customer experiences are no longer a distant dream. Gone will be the days where you shop online while cursing the fact that the website doesn’t have a fitting room. AR journey builders will work to make it possible for customers to enter a virtual shopping world, walk around stores, and try on new clothes – all from the comfort of their home! Not into shopping? That’s okay. There are also options in this field for travel and tourism. You can create journeys to help people make a decision before booking a specific hotel room, or even allow them to virtually visit a country before booking their plane ticket! You could design visual museum tours that people can do from their living rooms. There are several avenues into the field of augmented reality because it is not only about the technical skills – it incorporates elements of design, psychology and art. If you’re thinking about a career in AR, then a background in audio technology, engineering, applied mathematics, user experience design, and customer experience will help you get a head start.
43D-printed food chef 3D printing is one of the technologies experts predict will creatively disrupt how we live and work in coming years. Engineers are creating biomeat products in labs and 3D printers can be loaded with these organic materials. If you’ve got a passion for food, coupled with technology, you could find yourself working in a 3D-printing restaurant as a chef! A number of restaurants around the world already serve 3D printed food.
10top
IN-DEMAND JOBS IN SOUTH AFRICA RIGHT NOW
In November 2020, the South African government launched the National List of Occupations in High Demand and identified the top 10 occupations currently in demand. They are:
01 Agricultural scientist 02 Food and beverage scientist 03 Web designer/developer 04 Multimedia designer 05 Software developer 06 Computer network and symptoms engineer 07 Geographic information systems technician 08 Biotechnologist 09 Registered nurse 10 Safety, health, environmental and quality (SHEQ) practitioner
HIGH-PAYING HEALTH JOBS… WITHOUT A MEDICAL DEGREE
When we think about careers in health, we often think about doctors. But you don’t need to go to medical school to land a top-paying job in the healthcare field. Here’s a list of 15 jobs to consider if you want to help people towards better health but don’t want to become a doctor: • Nurse anaesthetist • Physician assistant • Nuclear medicine technologist • Speech-language therapist or pathologist • Genetic counsellor • Radiation therapist • Occupational therapist • Nurse midwife • Orthotist and prosthetist • Magnetic resonance imaging technologist • Medical sonographer • Dental hygienist • Respiratory therapist • Dietician and nutritionist • Biomedical engineer CASE STUDY
I deal with investigations not even the police can do
Thabo Mahlangu is a senior artificial intelligence (AI) researcher at South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). He is part of an elite team that is tasked with defending the country against cybersecurity threats and attacks. He says that, since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, South Africa has seen a sharp rise in ransomware attacks on hospital systems and medical facilities. During this type of attack, cybercriminals infiltrate networks and then lock legitimate users out of a system, demanding large amounts of money before they release access back to the rightful owners.
None of the attacks in South Africa have been successful, with Thabo and his team stopping them all before they were even launched – saving both money and lives. Thabo provides cybersecurity awareness training and develops cybersecurity tools to make threat hunting and detection quick and easy.
“I use AI to solve a variety of problems in various domains, specifically in the cybersecurity domain,” he explains. “At the CSIR, we make use of huge datasets to build AI models that can predict threats in cyberspace and give insights into how to best fight these threats.”
The cybersecurity space is an exciting one to work in. “As a cybersecurity engineer, you get to deal with investigations that not even the police can do, because it’s very difficult to get tangible evidence in cybercrime cases,” he says. “You are forced to constantly learn new things because the cybercriminals are always trying new ways to hack and attack digital spaces. We have to be on the top of our game to ensure that we are always one step ahead.” He says technology should be embraced. “Many people fear that technological advances and AI will take away their jobs, but I see AI as having given birth to data science,
Thabo Mahlangu
machine learning and deep learning engineering… all fields that did not exist 10 years ago.”
Technology may have changed certain jobs, but it hasn’t stolen them. According to a non-profit IT security organisation, ISC², there are currently 2.93 million cybersecurity positions open and unfilled globally. Data scientists are in short supply. “This is exciting,” Thabo says. “When these numbers are considered, the problem is not creating jobs, but rather bridging the skills shortages needed to access opportunities and keep up with an ever-changing world. ” Technology, he says, can make the world a better place.
His film hero, Tony Stark (and his Iron Man persona), uses knowledge and technology to solve problems.
He inspires me because he is a superhero without superpowers, which shows that anyone can be a hero. You don’t need special abilities to make the world a better place. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields can empower a generation to solve its current problems, while making it easy for future generations to continue advancing
