Despite not being able to determine the exact jobs of the future, there is consensus on what critical skills will be needed.
Soft Skills
- Oral and Written Communication
- Application of Expertise
- Social and Emotional Skills
- Critical Thinking
- Creativity
- Collaboration
Specifically, research conducted by the Foundation for Young Australians4 found that jobs of the future will require workers with 70% more transferable and non-industry specific soft skills.
STEM
- Science
- Technology
- Engineering
- Mathematics
Already in high demand, these skills will be even more sought after in the future. As automation takes up existing jobs, there will be need for further innovation and technological progress.
SMAC
- Social
- Mobile
- Analytics
- Cloud
Today, virtually every business has a social media presence and more and more people are using mobile devices to access online services6. The increased usage of the internet is generating huge amounts of data, creating the need for analytics to make use of, and sell, this data.
Cloud computing is driving new business models, such as SaaS (software as a service), PaaS (platform as a service) and IaaS (infrastructure as a service).
As we move into the future, these technologies will become even more important, leading to increased demand for people skilled in social, mobile, analytics and cloud technologies.
THE NEED FOR EDUCATIONAL REFORM
As we march towards the future, there will be need for educational reforms in order to prepare students for the future workplace.
One of the problems of education as we know it today is that it was designed for the industrial age, yet we left the industrial age a long time ago. The focus on content knowledge and grades is becoming obsolete. The current education system was designed for routine and fixed procedure. Currently, we are taught how to do something once and then we spend the rest of our lives doing it.
While this model worked before, studies show, it will not work in the future.
According to the McKinsey Global Institute5, by 2030, up to 14% of the global workforce (approximately 375 million) will have to be retrained to learn new skills that will allow them to adapt to jobs that will emerge due to automation.
The current education model is exacerbating the skills gap that already exists in the employment market. Effectively, by maintaining the status quo, the gap left by providing incorrect education solutions is creating the perfect storm for unemployment, weak economic growth and ultimately civil unrest.
Education providers and Governments urgently need to start focusing on skills that will allow young people to thrive in the economy of the 21st century, whose economic value will be driven by imagination and creativity.
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