Pre-reading tasks

Task A

New technology might make your perfect job disappear. Write six skills you think would be most useful to learn to prepare you for future jobs.

Task B

Read the text and take notes on four areas:

• main ideas;
• questions raised in the text;
• how the information relates to you or a task you might have;
• what you have to add in terms of questions, comments and ideas.

Changes in demand sometimes occur when people no longer want or need a product or service. This is particularly the case when new fashions make certain items of clothing more or less popular. For example, hats made from beaver fur were popular from the l700s until around 1830, when silk became the preferred material. The change meant a decline in the employment of those who hunted beavers and prepared their furs. It also meant an increase in employment for those involved in silk production. In modern times, the development of petroleum­ based fabrics has similarly impacted the importance of traditional wool,  leather and cotton clothing.

Today, the biggest impact on job skills is new technologies, particularly computerization. Computerized bank machines have reduced the need for bank tellers. Word processing programs have reduced the need for secretaries. Online computer-based book scores have put many traditional book scores out of business along with the skilled employees who once worked in them.

You may think that in the future you will have a job that requires computer skills. But it is difficult to predict whether more intelligent computers will require less human involvement. What is likely is that computers will take over more, reducing or eliminating the need for skilled humans. If so, then how can you prepare yourself for jobs that may not exist today?

1. Gain proficiency with tools of technology. If you use a computer. are you able to use all the functions of its software? Consider the most common software programs used in your field. Are you competent in using them in practical and creative ways?

2. Develop relationships with others and confront and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally. Do you have the skills to identify problems in the world around you, particularly in the workplace? Can you use teamwork skills to address these problems in constructive ways? Do you have an understanding of other cultures? Can you work with people from other cultures?

3. Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes. Can you create presentations for different audiences? Imagine explaining something you know to a group of friends. Now imagine explaining the same information to a group of people from another culture. Could you do it?

4. Manage, analyse and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information.   Can you take information from a variety of sources (e.g., books, social media, websites, conversations) and organise them into simpler ideas?

5. Create, critique, analyse and evaluate multimedia texts. Can you create websites or other multimedia presentations with sound, text, video and images? Can you look at others· multimedia work and be critical about it?

 6. Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by complex environments. Can you make decisions about ideas of right and wrong in a variety of situations? Consider a difficult choice you might have to make in your life. On what basis would you make your choice?

These skills are the ones that are the most likely to prepare you to work with others in interesting jobs. However, a report prepared for the Association of American Colleges and Universities (Bauerlein, 2010) says that the most important skills are those that would have been familiar to people in the 1700s and earlier. These skills include the ability to effectively communicate orally and in writing. These were the most important skills mentioned by 89 per cent of employers. Other important skills were critical thinking and analytical reasoning.

Computers and other technologies will continue to be important in the future, but the ability to think critically and to communicate effectively might be the most important skills that future employees can learn.