This is such a fascinating topic because the issues are way more complex than the obvious political ones. It's actually a global phenomena that encompasses education, humanity and what is called the Industrial Revolution 4.0. And really, politics should be the least of the worries.
The thing is, if you listen to any futurist talk, they'll give you more or less the same estimates: In about 10 years time, almost half of the jobs we have today (as we know them) will cease to exist. And you know why, right? Robots.
When we say robots, we don't necessarily mean the Twikis and R2D2s of the world, but the AI that we have already begun to depend on, whether we realise it or not.
Back to that popular prediction of disappearing jobs; the good news is, there will also be in turn, new type of jobs being created. This has already been happening. When we started the new media initiative at Media Prima about a dozen years ago, we also created new jobs that that never existed cos we were digitizing content. Then social media came, and we created more jobs to take on those tasks.
In banking for example, we hardly see a human banker these days. We move money everyday simply through our mobile phones.
And today, more than half of the things I'm doing at my current job, didn't exist when I first started a career in content.
So the question now is; how ready are we for the (near) future?
The hard truth is, the days of having a job for life is OVER. What you're doing now, or the way you're doing it will be obsolete. No matter if you're in the government or private sector, or even freelancing, the "threat" is real. And it covers all sectors; banking, education, manufacturing, media, etc.
Stop thinking that the government or anyone else MUST give you a job. The world is moving from lifelong learning to lifelong employability. We've got to be able to learn and adapt. We will be doomed if we think one piece of paper or skill will get us through the next 20, 30 years.
Consider this: "According to The World Economic Forum, an estimated 65% of kids enrolling in primary education today will end up working in jobs that haven’t been created yet."
But of course the question now is, do we actually want to ensure our own survival? For example: If we were to put 50,000 people from the civil service into a pilot project to learn all-new skills, what would the take up be?
The future won't be "comfortable". It won't wait for you, and It certainly won't give a crap about what you feel you're entitled to...
