DailyPost 2608
FUTURE OF WORK OR WORK OF THE FUTURE!
Societies, communities, organizations, business enterprises, higher education / research institutions and for sure nations who do not engage with the problem statement of the future of work, will be incapacitated if not wiped away. As this has not been addressed seriously ever, so it has been presumed the issue does not exist. Every industrial revolution brought this problem on to the drawing boards and discussion tables, but nothing was done, to prepare a human resource blueprint to manage tectonic changes. Most of our planners have absolutely no idea, of nature of work we are likely to create or of creating resources for top end jobs, critical to the growth and development of the nation at that point in time.
The transformation of the nature of jobs is palpably visible and we have also been seeing the wiping out of many genres of jobs, which we never thought could vanish into thin air. Think of a situation where most of the educational system produces grads and post-grads, who don’t fit into the future of work paradigm, then what do you do? Currently too there are crores of unemployed youth, who came out of schools and colleges at time, when the digital transformation was still manageable and not beyond our comprehension. The future seems to be scary. ChatGPT changed it all.
Even the naysayers seem to have joined the AI bandwagon. Our attitudes and mindsets are biggest bottlenecks. AI would directly or indirectly impact most of the jobs; wiping out, creating new types of jobs, drastically change the nature of recruitment, emphasis on expertise and hands on professional existence and the capability to learn and work in a completely automated work environment. The content, aptitude levels and attitude of the current educational ecosystem is likely to turn irrelevant sooner than later. How life can be impacted by technology became visibly clear in our common experiences of Covid-19. That was due to the negative environment created by Covid. If technology goes on full swing in a planned and calibrated manner, proactively, then the positive impact of technology would need no validation. But who bridges the skills for the nature of workforce required then.
The success with the future of work is how we align, create and nurture our workforce for that goal. The second side is the ability to decipher the critical works / trades / skills and opportunities of the future. The purpose needs to be creation of appropriate human and other resources for the future. The work of the future has been becoming clear with every passing day, and all resources will have to be put in place, so that we don’t miss out on the work of the future. Data has made its impact felt for a long time and around it lots of future of work activities, jobs and transformation would take place was expected, but what did we do about it? Large percentage of our engineers are unemployables and barely two / three percent could be made to some respectable coding / algorithm league. Have we decided to be out reckoning in the world to come?
IF WE DON’T ENGAGE WITH FUTURE OF WORK, OUR FUTURE IS DOOMED?
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.