A new study has revealed that a significant proportion of young people are concerned about the rise of automation, with 40 per cent believing their current jobs could be replaced within the next decade.
The study, commissioned by Indian multinational Infosys, polled 1,000 young people per country in Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, South Africa, the UK, and the US. Aged between 16 and 25, the respondents were asked a number of questions regarding education, technology and their career prospects.
In the face of advancing technologies such as automation, Big Data and the Internet of Things, the vast majority of respondents agreed that the development of ‘soft’ skills was important for career prospects. Around 80 per cent of young people across all markets also agreed that continuous development of skills is essential to be successful in work.
“Young people around the world can see that new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, will enable them to reimagine the possibilities of human creativity, innovation and productivity,” said Dr Vishal Sikka, Infosys CEO.
“To empower these young people to thrive in this great digital transformation, our education systems must bring more focus to lifelong learning, experimentation and exploration – in addition to bringing computer science and technology more fundamentally into the curriculum.”
Young workers in developing countries felt best equipped in their technology skills, with almost four out of five in India and Brazil claiming to be confident in their technical ability. Just over half of respondents made the same claim in developed countries such as France and Australia.
Worryingly for the UK, 77 per cent of those surveyed here felt that their education did not prepare them adequately for the technological demands of the real world. This compares with a figure of 66 per cent in India. In addition, 70 per cent of respondents in the UK said they believed that job prospects were worse for young people now than they were for their parents’ generation.
” ….their (UK) education did not prepare them adequately for the technological demands of the real world.” Why would it, and how would it? Most teachers (at every level from primary school to PhD) have little concept of ‘the real world’ (if it is?) themselves: so how might they be able to train and educate and prepare their students for it? Teachers (if they are) interests appear to me (having joined them at age 50 after a highly successful career in Industry and Commerce worldwide) to be solely
ticking ‘quality’ boxes
doing the absolute minimum to ‘get-by’
pandering to those above them in the greasy pole of personal advancement…in a few words
“morally, socially, intellectually, academically and professionally corrupt and inept.”
There are some exceptions, but in my experience and four experiences at universities (if they are such) they are very thin on the ground. If one subscribes to the concept of “no bad armies, only bad officers”, and “no poor workforces, only poor managements” it is sadly, only a short step to “no poor students, only poor teachers.” [In session 2003/4 it was my good fortune to win the Higher Education Academy Prize for best/most innovative UK Engineering Lecturer-nominated by my studentso perhaps my view has some merit!]
As a ‘real’ work-experienced ex-teacher in the maths/science area whose aim was to kindle, then nurture a spirit of curiousity in students, I believe the comments are sweeping generalisations. And I bet your excrement doesn’t stink either!
Graeme, please note the ‘exclusion(s) and caveats I did carefully position in my comment(s). I am sure that with your work-experienced past, you too would qualify for excemption. But I stand by my overall thesis: my comments -which I agree will not suit all- are based solely upon my experience, as described. Chapter and verse available, should you contact me directly: mikeblamey@yahoo.co.uk.
“Kindle and nurture” how else should we and our charges, ascend?….-Two ‘sets’ of Erasmus exchange students were gracious enough to describe my ‘tutorials’ as ‘the best learning experience’ they had throughout their entire training, in France, germany, Italy, Spain. One of my fellow ‘winners’ in the award described had actually been a student of mine several years earlier. She [Dr Sue Owen] took my off-the-wall approach to extremes: deliberately offering lecture material -having first flagged such in her notes- that was incorrect and greatly relishing (and from which the students learnt a lot) their correcting her!
As far as your last comment: at age 75, its a bet you would lose! Best
Mike B
People tend to take themselves too seriously. Addressing the headline I would point out that along side media tales of advancing automation are stories of an aging population being unable to sustain itself. Add the two together and we see that we don’t need to worry.
As one of the ‘aging’ population am I to look forward to having my input needs handled by the delivery, by drone, of food and drink : and my output (when I can no longer handle it myself) covered and wiped by a robotic arm? heaven forbid.
I look forward to the Brave new World scenario. Choice of pension amount: until death but small and covering only the basics: or large: sufficient to do the travel and bucket-list and then the ‘switch-off’ pill to leave whilst still in control. I am going for option II