A decade’s worth of technological advancement and skills evolution is being compressed into 2020 due to COVID-19. This ‘2nd Renaissance’ will shape a new future powered by a combination of technology and human ingenuity. The virus has unleashed a global ‘future of work’ experiment on us all and businesses have had to adapt at exponential speeds. The viral spread and concomitant lockdown / opening up has led us all to pay attention to data, trends and exponential charts and taught us the maths lessons we ignored at school.
In my recent interview with Sunrise on Channel 7 we talk about what the future workforce will look like based on our research collaboration with ING Bank in the Future Focus Trend Report and what the key skills are that you need in the post-COVID-19 world.
Check out the interview here:
As the world adapts to the ‘new normal’ and we prepare for life after COVID-19, a new report from ING explores how Aussies can adapt and prepare for the digital workforce of tomorrow. New research reveals one in three (35%) Australians will be looking for a new job after COVID-19, whilst 32% expect jobs to be very hard to come by as a result of the crisis. Concern about what the future has in store also means a quarter (23%) are fearful or anxious about future job opportunities and unsure they have the right skills. What’s more, some Aussies are rethinking their career choices, with 1 in 10 (12%) considering jobs in essential services.
The secret to the workforce and leaders of tomorrow will be combining our knowledge of STEM with creativity, entrepreneurship, innovation, emotional intelligence and empathy. In the past, we had to excel at skills (left-brained skills) which robots can now do better than us. Right-brained capabilities aren’t able to be learnt (to the same degree or as quickly as left-brained skills) by robots yet and so will fall to humans to fulfil. Luckily there is still some cognitive upside for us humans in this 2nd Renaissance.
Focusing on right-brain skills will give us the possibility to pursue our true humanity and creativity - creativity that the traditional education system has historically ignored, and creativity we will need during and after the Corona recovery.
Looking at our current circumstances, there are many questions about the world we live in – from what constitutes ‘work’, to modern family life and what ‘essential’ work or services look like.
Evidence from our ING Future Focus Trend Report shows there is a Second Renaissance emerging, filled with new opportunities ready for the taking.