By Dr John C. Muyingo
The world is evolving technologically every day and this should be reflected in the way we teach our children. We must make plans for the next 10 to 15 years. When our children graduate, jobs will have changed. This means as we raise the children of today, we must consider the future.
There was a time not too long ago when schools had one computer per classroom and sometimes three or four computers for the entire school. People would take turns learning the basics of how to use computers. As time has gone on, public and private investors and organisations are sending more computers to schools. We must embrace this move to support the promotion of technology in schools since this is the future.
Emerging technologies are gradually affecting many areas of our lives. We are depending on technology in the way we consume information, do our shopping, learn or communicate. While we are still far from robots taking over, some aspects of technology are already affecting our lives, our jobs and industries. This might lead to the emergence of new job requirements and skills.
Over the past decade, ground-breaking and emerging technologies have signalled the start of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. By 2025, the capabilities of machines and algorithms will be more broadly employed than in previous years, and the work hours performed by machines will match the time spent working by human beings.
The Survey
The augmentation of work will disrupt the employment prospects of workers across a broad range of industries and geographies. New data from the Future of Jobs Survey suggests that on average, 15% of a company’s workforce is at risk of disruption in the horizon up to 2025, and on average, 6% of workers are expected to be fully displaced.
This report projects that in the mid-term, job destruction will most likely be offset by growth in the ‘jobs of tomorrow’— the surging demand for workers who can fill green economy jobs, roles at the forefront of the data and artificial intelligence economy, as well as in engineering, cloud computing, and product development. This set of emerging professions also reflects the continuing importance of human interaction in the new economy, with increasing demand for care economy jobs; roles in marketing, sales and content production; as well as roles at the forefront of people and culture.
Employers responding to the Future of Jobs Survey are motivated to support workers who are displaced from their current roles, and plan to transition as many as 46% of those workers from their current jobs into emerging opportunities. In addition, companies are looking to provide re-skilling opportunities to the majority of their staff (73%), cognisant of the fact that by 2025, 44% of the skills that employees will need to perform their roles effectively will change.
Effects Of COVID-19
You must have noticed after the COVID-19 outbreak, we can no longer run away from technology. We must be intentional in ensuring that ICT is embraced in all our schools and that we are preparing for a technologically driven workforce. Access should be at the centre of whatever we are doing to ensure that no children are left behind in the promotion of technology, mathematics and science in all our schools.
The Good And The Bad
The reality is that technology advancement in workplaces will increase productivity through eliminating the burden of doing repetitive tasks. But the danger with this, it may increase joblessness, which is why we must begin teaching our students survival skills; which they need to stay employed.
The writer is the Minister of State for Higher Education
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