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Careers of the Future

Focus on Careers of the Future

By the time you graduate from your degree or apprenticeship, there will be many new jobs available to you that haven’t even been invented yet!

Technology expansion is rapid, and who knows what jobs will be advertised in 10 years time, let alone 50?

According to a La Trobe University video featuring their Bachelor of Arts degree, by 2030 2 Billion jobs will be obsolete, to be replaced by ones that don’t exist yet.

The video also suggests you will have approximately 10 careers in your lifetime. This doesn’t mean changing employers 10 times, this refers to different occupations. So, you may start out as a builder, move on to teaching and then to nursing.

The message of the video is that you have to be able to adapt as the world changes. You will need to continually work on developing your interpersonal skills such as communication, team work, and problem solving.

You will also need to commit to lifelong learning, to having up to date skills and to being competitive in the job market. So you may complete a university degree, then a TAFE qualification, then short courses, then a graduate university course and then more short courses.

There is no right or wrong way of doing things, but you need to be flexible and adaptable when it comes to change, because if there is one thing you can be 100% sure of, there will be lots of it.

What will job advertisements look like in the future?

Amy Zuckerman is a journalist. She developed futuristic job advertisements for several technology careers, including:

  • Personal Virtual-Presence Agent
  • Automotive Hybrid and Fuel-Cell-Vehicle
  • Research Engineer
  • Exobiologist to Study Alien Life-Forms
  • Senior Biocomputing Engineer
  • Digital Matchmaker
  • Gene Diagnostician

If you think they sound far fetched, just remember that it wasn’t so long ago that Facebook didn’t exist, we couldn’t access the internet via our phone, and Bluetooth and cloud computing didn’t exist.

We now have courses that focus on

  • Global security and terrorism
  • Genetic counselling
  • Geomatics
  • Human interface technology
  • Renewable and ‘green’ energies
  • iPhone & iPad App development, and
  • Social analytics and data science

Apprenticeship, TAFE and university courses will evolve and develop as technology and our society evolves. The future is very bright and the world is certainly your oyster!

The Canadian Scholarship Trust Plan and foresight strategists recently came up with descriptions for jobs that may exist in 2030. Apart from jobs that haven’t been invented yet, they have predicted what jobs may be like for occupations such as teaching and plumbing,

Interesting job titles include:

• Nostalgist

• Telesurgeon

• Rewilder

• Simplicity Expert

• End of Life Therapist

Futurist Morris Miselowski predicts that by 2050, 60% of people will be doing jobs that don’t currently exist.

He predicts we could be working in jobs such as:

• Transhumanist Designer/Engineer

• Nano Medic

• Memory Augmentation Surgeon

• Ethics Lawyer

• Weather Controller

• Spaceport Traffic Control

He believes that many jobs will focus on technology and the human body, improving health and extending human life.

Whilst many of these jobs focus on science and technology, all jobs will be affected and will either become obsolete or undergo significant changes.

According to the Foundation for Young Australian’s, the world of work will look vastly different to the world of work you currently experience. Robotics, automation, artificial intelligence, working remotely, and increase in digital work…many things will change, even within the next 10 years.

According to their recent New Work Smarts report, you can expect the following to occur by 2030:

• Automation and globalization will change what we do in every job.

• Within the next 10 years, many jobs will no longer exist

• Teenagers can expect to work for an average of 17 employers over their lifetime across 5 different careers.

• Workers will spend 100% more time solving problems, 30% more time learning and 77% more time using STEM skills (science,

technology, maths, engineering) than the same jobs demand now.

• Workers will spend more time getting value out of technology and use more digital skills (e.g., updating websites)

• Workers will be more flexible and independent in the workplace.

• With globalization, more workers will collaborate with people around the world.

• Workers will spend less time on routine and manual tasks due to automation, and more time focused on people, solving strategic problems and thinking creatively.

What does this all mean for me?

Whilst in school, it is crucial that you engage in your studies and keep an open mind about the future. What you aim to be doing in five years may not be what you will actually be doing.

Just remember this mantra: Change is constant, but accessing your allies will assist you to navigate through your career.

Mr Damian McAuliffe
Pathways Coordinator