Future Occupations: A Case Study: Future Jobs

711 Words3 Pages

Future Jobs
In many industries and countries, most in-demand occupations or specialties did not exist 10 or even five years ago, and the pace of change is set to accelerate. According to World Economic Forum (2016), 65% of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in completely new job types that don’t yet exist. Therefore, most businesses currently facing major recruitment challenges and talent shortages, a pattern already evident in the results and set to get worse over the next five years.
World Economic Forum (2016) stated that there is a strong growth in Computer and Mathematical and Architecture and Engineering related fields. However, the recruitment is currently perceived as most difficult for traditional …show more content…

While some jobs are threatened by redundancy and others grow rapidly, existing jobs are also going through a change in the skill sets required to do them. According to World Economic Forum (2016), there is a strong demand growth expected in certain cross-functional skills, cognitive abilities and basic skills such as active learning and ICT literacy. Besides, it is to be expected that businesses in Industry 4.0 need both enhanced social and technical skills (Blanchet, M., Rinn, T., Thaden, G., and Thieulloy, G, 2014). Listed below are the skills set required in the near …show more content…

Jobs at the high-skill end involve abstract tasks, and at the low-skill end, manual tasks. What both of these categories of tasks have in common is that they require what Autor terms “situational adaptability”— the ability to respond to unique unexpected circumstances of the moment. Tasks as different as writing a convincing legal argument, or creating a new dish out of set ingredients both require novel thinking and adaptability.

2. Critical thinking
Critical thinking involves being able to use logic and reasoning to interrogate an issue or problem, consider various solutions to the problem, and weigh up the pros and cons of each approach (World Economic Forum, 2016).
As smart machines take over rote, routine manufacturing and services jobs, there will be an increasing demand for the kinds of skills machines are not good at. These are higher level thinking skills that cannot be codified (Shareground and St. Gallen University, 2015). Thus, organizations in 2020 will see critical thinkers as highly employable, and a welcome addition to any team (Vivien Luu,

Open Document