The new work order is here
As automation, globalisation and collaboration shape the future of work, young people today have to be prepared to change industries and adapt to less predictable conditions. Jan Owen, CEO of the Foundation for Young Australians, shares the latest research.
So, what do you want to be when you grow up? We have been putting this question to children and young people since the start of the Industrial Revolution. Whatever answer young people proffered – engineer, accountant, hairdresser, dentist, teacher, scientist, doctor – would then point them to the training they would need, and whether they should go to university or TAFE, or enter an apprenticeships.
Today, that question no longer serves. The assumption on which it is predicated – a single career for life in a stable workforce – is now false. The world of work is in a massive transition to an ever more global, technology driven, flexible economy in which whole professions are being altered, new professions are coming into existence, and traditional jobs are being swallowed by automation. To cite just one example, there were no app developers until the launch of the IPhone in 2007; now it is a major industry in its own right. At least for now, until a new technology comes along and apps face their own Kodak moment.
At the Foundation for Young Australians we have been researching this confronting and exciting change to how people earn their daily bread. We have sought to understand the dimensions of this change, the implications for young people – and thereby, the future of this country – and what we need to do to prepare young people for their economic lives.
To that end, we initiated a policy and research program called The New Work Order. Our first report, launched in August 2015, explored the three economic forces – automation, globalisation and collaboration – shaping the future of work. Its conclusion: In a world where change is the one constant, a 15 year old today can expect upwards of 17 jobs in five different industries over the course of their working life.
Our second report, How Young People are Faring, released in September last year, examined how – and how well – young Australians are being prepared for this new reality. In the new work order young people will need excellent ‘enterprising skills’ – digital literacy, critical thinking, creativity, financial savvy, flexibility, the ability to collaborate, self-sufficiency – to survive and thrive in a radically altered economy. Yet our research showed that young people are not ready. Data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) shows that close to a third of Australian 15 year olds had low proficiency in both financial literacy and problem solving while more than a quarter demonstrate low proficiency in digital literacy. Moreover, ever larger numbers of young people will need to become job creators, rather than relying on the old paradigm of being job seekers, yet little is being done within our education systems to embed enterprise skills.
For our most recent report in this series, The New Basics, we compared the skills sought by employers just three years ago with the skillsets required today. This was done by analysing 4.2 million ads for jobs requiring less than five years of experience. The results were astonishing. Since 2013 the demand for digital skills has increased by more than 200%, critical thinking by more than 150%, creativity by more than 60% and presentation skills by 25%. These are the New Basics that entrants to the economy already require, and which will be essential into the future.
The report also shows that jobs which have a strong focus on technical skills, such as dentists, environmental engineers and veterinarians, are now amongst the most common occupations requiring digital literacy.
FYA is relentlessly optimistic. We believe Australia is well placed to maximise the opportunities this historic restructure of workforce relations presents. A country of 24 million people with over two million small businesses attests to our willingness and capacity to engage in enterprise.
We must take action now. It begins with investment in an enterprise education strategy. We need to teach enterprise skills, starting in primary school and building year on year throughout high school. These must be taught in ways students want to learn, through experience and immersion with peers. We need to support our teachers to resource students for the fluid, complex, enterprising new work order. Concurrently, parents must be provided with information about the skills their children will need to craft and navigate multiple careers. Urgently, we need to engage students, schools, industry and parents to understand the new work order which whilst less stable and predictable, is rich in opportunity.
We will achieve a future-ready workforce by embedding the New Basics in the DNA of future generations. By investing in the next generation to equip and inspire them for a radically different future of work, we will ensure Australia’s future prosperity.
Next time you are talking with a child or young person about their future, instead of asking, ‘So, what do you want to be when you grow up?’ ask them this question: ‘So, what kind of opportunities do you want to create?’
Jan Owen is CEO of the Foundation for Young Australians. A pioneer of the youth sector in Australia, Jan has dedicated most of her working life to social change and encouraging young people to give back and invest their talents in their communities and things they are passionate about.
Max Thomas
June 14, 2016 at 9:29 am
What are we working for?
As a retired person who worked a long time for Kodak and survived the demise of 'traditional' imaging technology by reinventing my career, I agree that willingness to change, learn and adapt are crucial to success. But our political and economic leaders are clearly incapable of predicting or planning for even the short-to-medium term, so can we seriously expect young people to answer the question: "what kind of opportunities do you want to create?" That question is as likely to evoke a shrug or blank expression as: "what do you want to do when you grow up?" Actually, the latter question might evoke a much stronger retort, as it deserves. Accepting that presentation and digital skills, critical thinking and creativity are the basics for entry into the workforce, I would add written and verbal expression. These are the 'tools' that give meaning to, and engage others in, the realisation of ideas. As much, perhaps more than ever, young people need leadership and guidance. However, the course of their careers will nonetheless be shaped by forces and circumstances, both personal and vocational, which they are unlikely to anticipate or be able to change. Young people are less likely to define themselves by their vocation than their parents and grandparents. Bertrand Russell observed that if moving matter about is the purpose of human life, we should have to consider every labourer superior to Shakespeare. Perhaps we are seeing a revolution in the nature of work itself. As with all revolutions, the outcome may well be quite different to the aims and expectations of the participants.
Lily_Rose
June 29, 2016 at 2:42 pm
We are working for the future
Max, I am speaking for the young people of my age. You are absolutely right – willingness to change and adapt is crucial. Although I would argue that we are not less likely to define ourselves by our vacations. I work as a journalist, and I define myself as a journalist. It is my life, it is who I am. My boyfriend works as an app developer at an agency. It is his hobby, his vocation – and how could he define himself if he lived a couple decades ago? His life is connected to the mobile industry that did not exist then. I have read articles about the fact that a single life career has become old-fashioned, but I totally disagree. That is my point of view.