Terence Mapuka : Cool Lifestyle Correspondent

Young people today need to pay attention to the changes occurring in the field of work. If not, then they will be caught unawares with skills for a world of dinosaurs in a world of computers. My eldest daughter is so keen to be a pilot. She is only nine years old now but I wonder with the coming of drones now, in her time would there be need of human pilots?

Our nation has a larger population being the youth. As you go through school you need to be creative and innovative to stand a chance. There are two areas that you need to look out for when you look to the future of work.

At an event recently held called The Space, the important factors to note when looking at the future of work were technology and skill. The Space is Zimbabwe’s international platform convened and organised by young people anchored on four activities they call Bays. The aim is to re-imagine, prepare and shape the future young people want to see. “This is achieved through cross pollination of ideas between the old skool (mature leaders) and the klas of now (young people)” as their flyer read. One interesting discussion was on The Future of Work.

It is true that technology has disrupted the traditional working space and even taken up some jobs that years back were powered by human effort. Technology has resulted in job losses. Let us face the facts; the largest taxi business in the world is Uber, guess what they do not own a single car. The largest accommodation provider is Airbnb and they do not own any property. The world’s most valuable retailer is Alibaba and it does not carry any stock, it does not even have warehouses. The most popular media house in the world is Facebook and it does not create any content. That is technology disruption at its best. The period we are in is called the fourth Industrial Revolution which has a lot of robots and machines doing most of the work. If all the work is taken by robots then what are you teens going to do? The easiest solution is to understand technology as much as possible. That is the only way you can remain relevant in tomorrow’s world. I have met some who are into developing applications and they have a great future. You need to develop applications that help in the day to day activities that humans do and the products we use. Just recently, some students from Queen Elizabeth devised a non-electric refrigerator to solve problems of food wastage.

The second factor is on skills. So as a teenager what skills should you possess to tackle this future full of robots and machines. The machines and robots are made by people with a certain skill that is quite an important skill for the future. These skills include programming, coding to develop software and applications that run technology. You need to be aware that the set of skills you need in today’s world are diverse. You need the practical skills, financial skills and social skills to stay ahead of your colleagues.

So much is happening in the workplace and the future needs to be monitored closely by you youngster closely adjusting yourself to remain valuable.For more on the topic on the future of work, you can follow zwTEENS as they launch a discussion on the ‘Future of Human Resources’.

Terence Mapuka is with zwTEENS an organisation which helps teens with career choices. You can reach Terence on 0772101601,[email protected] or visit their website www.zwteens.com

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