The Daleks are coming and many high skill jobs are not safe
the past five years? Do you frequently marvel at the ease of paying bills and transacting online compared to the way our parents paid bills and undertook their banking? I doubt it. It’s completely normal now.
‘… the report finds that occupations most at risk of computerisation are those that involve routine tasks, such as bank tellers, clerks, bookkeepers and even highly qualified roles such as pharmacists – 78.6 per cent of whom have at least a bachelor’s degree.
“A tertiary education, therefore, does not guarantee a safeguard against automation,” Mr Cully said in the report.
A widely-quoted Oxford Martin School study published last year estimated that about 47 per cent of all US jobs are at risk of computerisation, many of them in sectors needing high-level skills, wages and education.
By contrast, Mr Cully said some of the safest jobs were those that did not require advanced education – including truck drivers, electricians and waiters.
Asked what jobs young Australians should train for, Mr Cully said it was more important to get good schooling – whether through an apprenticeship or university – than target any particular sector. “We don’t know what the future holds,” he said in an interview on Tuesday. (my bold)
especially outside any traditional place of formal learning.
Great stuff Ross, continually learning (and continually wanting to learn) should be near the top of every ones to do list and near the top of the competency list for everyone looking to recruit a senior person
Very interesting article.
The reality is that ever since the first human being picked up a tool – perhaps a rock to break open a nut – we have been trying to put ourselves out of work. It's a long time since we used rocks to break open nuts, or used spinning wheels to make threads that could be manually knitted into garments. The industrial revolution, primarily driven out of Britain, Germany and some other European countries changed the nature of work forever. Millions of people were thrown out of work and into poverty. The skills of many hundreds of thousands of skilled artisans were no longer needed. Yet few would argue today that we should go back to making bricks by hand, making glass bottles by blowing each one individually or manually spinning yarn to make our clothes. The change that was driven out of the industrial powerhouses of Europe changed the way we humans live our lives for the better in so many ways.
The reality is that the world is about to enter a very exciting period. A period of change that will be as big as the industrial revolution. We can't stop that change, we will not be able to hold back that change no matter how much some of the Luddites might want to. As with all change there will be winners and losses in the short term, though the whole of humanity will benefit in the long term. The real challenge is to figure out how not to end up being a short term looser.
Having grown up in the industrial north of England I have some sympathy for the Luddites in terms understanding their motivations, but burning down cotton mills was never going to be a successful strategy. The industrial revolution also resulted in the establishment of the trade union movement, who often rather than trying to bring a halt to the industrial revolution worked to improve the conditions of those poor souls who were forced to work in horrendous conditions for next to nothing. One has to wonder what social change, what new types of organisations and social structures will evolve, what safety nets we will be able to put up, to protect the losers and have nots as we move into this next exciting revolution.
Growth mindset and lifelong learning with the motivation to shift and pivot before you have too. Take the choice rather than be backed into a corner