Tuesday, December 4, 2018

The Future of Work

Last month we attended the Atlantic's all day event on the Future of Work.  The day was full of surprises and lively discussion.  Among the topics were The State of Our Jobs, Opportunities Online,
the Freelance Economy, Can a Universal Basic Income Work, and What Will Happen to Drivers (truck drivers that is), and Is a Four Year Degree Worth It?  The underlying theme was that everyone needs to look at the world of work differently.

The old model sectioned life into three parts: education; work; retirement.  The new model has education as a life long pursuit.  Technological change will require everyone who wants to be economically viable to be enhancing their skills throughout their lives.  Many of the jobs of the future don't even exist today and will necessitate a whole new skill set.  The future of work is learning!

One of the presentations was on Upskilling the Workforce. Upskilling is a new word for us.  Simply put, you need to be constantly improving your technology skills.  PwC's U.S. Chairman, Tim Ryan, lead the discussion, which talked about an app his firm developed to assist its employees and clients to have access to meaningful technology training.  More and more firms are going to be offering this mode of education.

One of the other take aways was that a 10 year old child today will on average live to 104.  That's the average so someone who is long lived will get to be 120 or even older.  The critical message is to start saving for the future as early as you can.   But we knew that already!!


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