Getting Ready for the Future.
Have you ever wondered what type of jobs would dominate in the coming years? The current workforce is constantly being developed in order to meet the demands of the rapidly growing 21st century. But ask yourself this question; as the methods of work are gradually changing, are we as humans also upgrading our skills to work efficiently in the change? By the year 2030, jobs will be totally transformed. Some jobs are becoming highly automated, and on-premise systems are equally becoming cloud-based. It is therefore important that avenues for reskilling are provided.
New Industrial Era
This brings us to the field of reskilling in the 4th Industrial Revolution. As you probably know already, the world is going through a change in phases. The 4th Industrial Revolution is gradually shifting the current era into a more technologically advanced world. It is therefore important that workers reskill. New learners or workers can be retaught on current skills and knowledge that would be vital to the years ahead.
In an article for the World Economic Forum, Managing Director, Saadia Zahidi, says that “As jobs are transformed by the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we need to reskill more than 1 billion people by 2030”
Reskilling?
Well, new strategies can be developed to meet the goal of reskilling thousands for the future, and education can be the first point of call. As the world is developing, it is vital that the things students learn are also reshaped to suit that of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Talk of skills — both soft skills and hard skills- can be taught and practiced in depth to prepare students for the coming years. Schools can particularly include these skills training in their curriculum to provide the students with the necessary preparation and equip them for the coming years. STEAM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Arts, Math) education is also being sought after, thus, we can maximize this method to further train and prepare individuals for the 4th Industrial Revolution.
Technical skills and jobs such as assembly line and factory workers, commercial drivers, cashiers, bank tellers and clerks, travel agents, and postal workers have been automated today. This simply implies that these jobs are currently being performed by machines, technology, or even robots. There are now self-driving vehicles and machines performing routine activities in factories and storehouses. Another clear example is the use of drones. Previously, humans had to be onboard helicopters just to get a bird’s eye view of some scenes, however, with the invention of drones, specifically, the multi-rotor drone, all one does is control it from the ground and still achieve this view. Beyond this, the previous method of having to drive long distances to make deliveries is now being automated also with the drone. In Ghana, for instance, the health ministry recently in the midst of the Covid pandemic employed the use of drones, that is the fixed-wing drone to deliver covid tests and health resources or medications to rural communities and villages. In an article for the World Economic Forum, a statement says that: “Outside of Kigali, drones now carry 35% of blood supply for transfusion. In Ghana, they are beginning to deliver COVID-19 testing materials.”
Current and new learners would have to go a mile further to equip themselves with the new kind of skills that would be required in the 4th Industrial Revolution. Below is a list of technical jobs that will be in demand post-2020:
- Product Design & Development
- Software developers and computer programming
- Management analysts
- Data Analysts
- Product designers and creatives
- Customer service representatives.
In an article released for the World Economic Forum, the following are the top 10 soft skills needed to survive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. They include
- Complex problem solving
- Critical and design thinking
- Creativity
- Collaborative skills
- Coordinating with others
- Emotional intelligence, judgment, and decision making
- Service orientation
- Negotiation
- and Cognitive flexibility.
There are many other ways reskilling can be applied to advance development, not just in education and businesses, but also in every aspect of our lives. The evolving world does not exclude some aspects of our lives but tends to affect all.
