Challenging times ahead for young people
The ongoing debate about the future of work often centers on the impact of technology. Youth aged 15 to 24 is one of the most vulnerable segments of the population when it comes to automation.
Between 400 million and 800 million individuals could be displaced by automation and they need to find new jobs by 2030. The rapid deployment of technologies is likely to exceed the pace at which economies can reabsorb and redeploy the millions of workers who may lose their jobs to automation. The speed by which reskilling could take place is a key question for workers to remain employable.
Technological innovation is fast replacing full-time employment with short-term contracting work. Full-time jobs are being replaced with freelancing, part-time, and casual jobs.
As the pool of full-time jobs significantly decreases, this will cause significant competition for existing jobseekers and graduates seeking their first job and trying to enter the job market.
While technological innovation is playing a very critical role in reshaping jobs and significantly decreasing the number of jobs available to jobseekers, we cannot ignore the impact of changing global demographic trends.
People are now living longer and healthier lives. The world population is estimated to increase from 7.6 billion in 2017 to 11.8 billion by 2100. People aged 60 years or over are projected to grow by 56% by 2030. This will result in an additional 2.7 million (or more) unemployed people.
It is no surprise that the number of new entrants into the labor market will be increasing in many countries. Close to 40 million people will enter the labor markets each year.
As such, between 2016 and the year 2030, the world economy needs to create close to 520 million new jobs in order to match the projected increase in the size of the labor force.
What we are experiencing today is due to the significant pace of labor force growth far out-striping the creation of new jobs. It’s a case of more demand for jobs by jobseekers over a very limited supply of jobs created by organizations due mainly to automation and population growth. These are also reasons why wage and economic growth have stagnated for many years.
Unfortunately, across the globe, youth unemployment is already at much higher levels than the average unemployment for adult populations.
In 2017, nearly 71 million youth are unemployed and another 160 million youth are working and still living in poverty. In 2015, almost 43% of the global youth labor force was either unemployed or living in poverty despite having a job. The latter is the result of low quality jobs available to young people.
As 65% of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in completely new job types that don’t yet exist today, schools and universities have critical roles in equipping and preparing students with the requisite skills and competencies that will be in demand by employers in the future.
Education and training models must keep pace with the rapid change in technologies and businesses to ensure that students and graduates have the appropriate skills to remain employable in the future. As technology evolves and skills that are in high demand shift over time, there is a very real need for a continuous feedback loop between labor market needs, the education systems, and the available skills.
Regrettably, years of study upfront, tens of thousands of dollars in course fees or student loan debts and an outdated Factory Model of Education that has barely changed for decades make less sense than ever before when technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship are forcing skills redevelopment and retraining, over shorter cycles, across more professions, job groups and industries.
In fact, only 22% of Americans with a bachelor’s degree or higher believed that their own education prepared them “well” or “very well” to work with artificial intelligence in the workplace.
Financial education and literacy are important for young people, students and graduates. It’s about understanding financial, credit and debt management. It’s about knowing how a checking account works, how to use a credit card, and how to avoid debt.
With the growing sophistication and complexity of financial markets, instruments and processes, financial literacy will help us make financially responsible decisions that are integral to our everyday lives. It will come in handy when we balance a budget, buy a home, fund the children’s education, and ensure a reliable stream of income at retirement.
When individuals are financially educated, they will be more likely to save and invest. They will have positive effects on both the investment levels and economic growth.
The reality is that graduates are finding it so much harder to secure their first full-time job because of the changing nature of work for the future, demographic changes and skill sets of individuals.
Indeed, one in five employed university leavers are unhappily working part-time and in jobs that are not their field of study. They will most likely be in debt acquiring outdated skills and knowledge that are no longer required by future employers over many years of study from costly universities or colleges.
Certainly nearly every aspect of our lives will depend on computer coding and programming. The phones we use; the cars we drive; the banks we use; and the hospitals we visit.
At its height back in 2000, Goldman Sachs employed 600 traders buying and selling stock on the orders of its clients. In 2017, there are just two equity traders left. Automated trading programs have substantially taken over the rest of their trading work supported by 200 computer engineers.
Without a doubt, computer programming is becoming a core skill requirement for many well-paying jobs. This will lead to further inequality in pay between the haves and haves not because of varying skill sets.
Coding skills are in demand across a broad range of careers. The ability not only to use but also to program software and develop applications is often required of business people who create websites, build products and technologies, and conduct research.
It’s only through the learning and application of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) that we will be enabled to effectively develop, program, and deploy machines.
It is no surprise that students studying science or maths in college have a higher employment rate and salary than other majors after graduation, according to a report from the Department of Education.
The reality is that jobs that require STEM education will always be in demand, at least for now. We need to realize that machines, automation and artificial learning need people with STEM skills, experience, and background. By themselves, machines are just useless pieces of hardware.
The percentage of employers automating their work and seeing an increase in skill premiums is expected to double from 23% to 46% by 2020. Workers are now expected to perform higher value jobs in order to be in employment or just to remain employable in the future.
In-demand jobs will require a mix of high tech and high touch skills and experience. Students and graduates will definitely need a mix of digital and technology skills and soft inter-personal skills.
The key to understanding the future of job for students, graduates and job seekers is the increasing need to solve complex problems, creatively finding new products and services through innovation, and social interaction at a human level as more machines come into contact with our lives.
My eBook, Shocking Secrets Every Worker Needs to Know: How To Future-Proof Your Job, Increase Your Income, Protect Your Wealth In Today’s Digital Age, will set a broader context of what’s occurring in the workplace.
It is highly recommended that you read it to educate yourself further about the future of work, the issues at play, and the significant impacts on the employability of students and graduates.
If you are a parent with teenage children, it makes good sense to educate yourself first about your own job security and employability from a future-proofing perspective. Your knowledge will be highly beneficial for you as you provide job and career guidance and advice to your children. It’s an invaluable inheritance that you can give your children.
Your job, if you choose to accept it, is to encourage your children to push themselves into areas outside of their comfort zone. They should be choosing the subjects that will help them grow and be sustainable for the future in addition to those subjects that they can get the best grades in.
If your child is outstanding at art, do encourage them to choose a science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subject.
The opportunity to develop STEM skills may not arise again after school and opting out early will limit their options at university and beyond.
At worst, they have learned crucial skills that they wouldn’t have developed otherwise.
At best, they will bring their scientific knowledge to their art endeavors that will give them and their work the X-factor.
On the other hand, if your child loves science, do encourage them to try debating, drama, or enroll in Toastmasters. These experiences will foster greater appreciation and respect for the broadest range of human accomplishments.
Next time you are talking with your child or young person about their future, instead of asking; “So, what do you want to be when you grow up?” ask them: “So, what kind of opportunities, change or impact do you want to create or problems do you want to solve?“
It’s about asking, “What do you want to do?”, rather than, “What do you want to be?”
We need to give our children permission to better understand themselves, their values, and their curiosities.
Ask them the following questions:
1. Is this something you love doing? (Their passion)
2. Is this something the world needs? (Their mission)
3. Is this something you’re great at? (Their vocation)
4. Is this something you can be paid for? (Their profession)
These questions can open the door for self-reflecting questions like, “Why am I here? What am I doing with my life? Why am I unique?”
Get our young kids thinking about their future is getting them to flex their entrepreneurial muscle to focus on customer-focused value-creation activities. Get them to start thinking like problem solvers, disruptors or system-challengers. Think about the Uber’s or Airbnb’s of the world.
While not every child will want to become an entrepreneur, they need to think like an entrepreneur to build their confidence to do something that they truly care about. This will give them the ability to survive in the future where we need people who can make a job rather than just take a job.
With jobs evolving so rapidly, our children must stop choosing their careers. Jobs come and go. Asking them how they want to make a difference offers trajectory and motivation to succeed. Questions about their contribution to the world help get them thinking about direction.
We need to help young adults find their meaningful path in life that is both fulfilling and sustainable where they can use a broad range of skills to adapt, predict and innovate.
It’s about asking them what they love doing, what they are great at, what problems the world needs solving, and how much they can earn doing what they love.