I saw a great speaker Dr Ben Hamer, at the annual Careers Advisors Conference in October, 2024 who works researching the world of work.
He researches how our young people currently live and how their lives and the world of work are shaping up. For anyone teaching young people, working with them, or living with them – this information could be helpful but also sobering.
Key takeaways:
- Those who enter the workforce now will have 20 jobs across five different career sectors. This is a statistic I have been hearing for almost five years now, so no surprises. Whatever students do after school – even if it’s vocational – will NOT be the one they retire with.
- They will be working a lot later in life – retiring into their late 70s – some even early 80s.
- Students will be working for at least 50 or at least 60 years, but not in ONE career.
- We can’t talk about the ONE area anymore. – what excites you, what gives you energy, that is what we need to pursue. The pursuit of purpose is crucial.
- Roles won’t be permanent. There will be many more start-ups and sole traders.
- 9/10 out of NEW jobs will need a post-secondary qualification.
- Current retirement age in Australia is 58 which is relatively young.
- It’s about the SKILLS students are collecting along the way – not the jobs. Pivoting and being agile is crucial.
- We are preparing students for a world we don’t know yet.
- Static career paths are long gone.
- Change is at the fastest pace it ever has been in history. But it is never going to be this slow again.
- There is four times as much information per day hitting us, as there was 10 years ago.
- Only 28% of Australian parents feel confident giving their students advice about career choices.
Dr Hamer discussed seven areas he feels we need to keep our eye on:
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been building for a long period of time, starting with AI beating humans in chess over 30 years ago. 2023 was the big year for AI, including ChatGPT. It had the largest uptake of users using any technology EVER before in history. One in five people with access to the web were using ChatGPT within a few months.
- The Metaverse is now also big business. This is how we live, work and play in virtual worlds. In the next 10 years people will be accessing Chrome, Explorer etc through their own virtual headset. It is expected to be worth $180bn of value, by 2030, with 700% growth. There are currently 400m active users with over half aged 13 or younger.
- People and Generations – GEN Z are going to occupy 25% of the Australian workforce – so we need to learn more about them:
- In 2024 their thing is sustainable fashion.
- Self-improvement is big business.
- Career Development is important and different to previous generations.
- They value their pay – more than anyone else in the past.
- Mental Health – they are the most mental health literate generation ever, with wellbeing support being very important.
- Flexibility – they value flexibility more than any other generation in the past – 50% would turn down a job if it wasn’t flexible enough.
- Flexible Working – Hybrid working is critical. Work is now who you are – not what you do. Dr Hamer’s work predictions:
- We will never go back to five days a week in the office again.
- Usually 3-4 days in the office, with 1-2 from home.
- Fairwork can now be used if organisations don’t offer flexibility.
- The right to log off is now much greater.
- The new normal is to take more leave e.g. eight weeks of leave at half pay.
- Companies need to be much more flexible in order to cater for Gen Z.
- Growing momentum with the fiur day work week – this is trialling across various industries.
- ESG – Ethical, Sustainable, Social, Environment and Governance
- Social activism is a huge growth area
- Using social media to get advice is the new normal
- Tiktok and Quittok – are where trends are starting
- There is rising calls for companies to be more purpose-driven
- Wellbeing – the average Australian does 6.5 hours of overtime per week equating to $15,000 per year.
- Workers are pulling back and setting up boundaries
- Wellbeing is becoming increasingly important. The second most important factor of what employees are looking for. What does it look like? It’s not just free yoga classes!
- Employers are the primary source of wellbeing supports i.e. psychological services, counselling, wellbeing needs to be 24/7 provision.
- The Re-skilling revolution
- In order to stay employable reskilling is going to be essential. This is where life-long-learning is crucial. Job skills will lose half their value every five years. Employee’s will need to spend 15% of the working week upskilling just to remain current.
Human Intelligence working with Artificial Intelligence is where employees can really add value and be at their most employable in the workforce in the future.