Jobs of the Future and What Parents can do to help their kids

In case you haven’t heard, technology is making so many jobs redundant, that only the adaptable will survive. And when I say ‘jobs redundant’ I mean across EVERY conceivable industry and level of specialisation. Robotic surgery is now so good that not only can it be done remotely, it can be done without human intervention. That is only going to happen more so ‘good bye surgeons’. There’s a robotic hair washing machine and robotic vacuum cleaner so ‘good bye hair apprenticeships’. There’s software that does the work of 4 or 5 young lawyers, so ‘good bye article clerks’ and let’s not metnion the robotic hamburger machine that can make and customise a few hundred choices of hamburgers for the waiting consumer. As more jobs vanish, others are created and if you are a parent of some youngsters there ARE some actions you CAN take to make a difference for them. And no, ‘choice of school’ is not what I’m talking about here. Instead

 

we have to focus on the kinds of capabilities you’d want your children to develop. In this article ‘What will the future of work look like?’ I chat with Ruth Callaghan from KidSpot, about jobs of the future and core skills that employees will need. Marcus Barber & Ruth Callaghan

A 2003 Prediction about 2015 One Step Closer to Coming True!

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Sometimes when you look at enough assorted pieces of information a clear pattern emerges. In a previous role I was tasked with looking at the Future of Education, a topic I delved deeply into for almost 3 years. And in 2003 in a piece titled ‘The Future of Commercial Education’ I predicted that by 2015,…

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How Digital Agencies Will Fail Everytime

Sep 30, 2014

Tomorrow I’ll be at the State Library of Victoria as part of the #V21 Digital Summit. In my futurist, pragmatist role I’ll be presenting few ideas about why ‘Your Future is NOT an App’, then later in the day facilitating an onstage debate about Disruption’s role in Innovation. And if it is anything to go…

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Are Interest Rate Levers too Clumsy for a Teetering Economy?

Aug 16, 2014

I’ve been having a think lately about whether the use of Interest Rate movements by the Reserve Bank is actually too clumsy an instrument for effective economic management. The potential weakness has emerged only in recent times as the signs of a world-wide economic melt down have begun to expose one of the limitations of…

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Leading with One Hand Tied behind Your Back

Aug 4, 2014

There’s a few problems with the successful leadership lists that bounce their way around the internet. In my opinion they lack context – the reality check that only comes by having a full appreciation of an individual organisation’s particular circumstances. Unfortunately many of these lists of ‘required leadership behaviours’ offer shallow quick fix advice that…

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Why Coal’s biggest problem right now, is not renewables

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There’s no doubt that coal has a legitimacy problem with large swathes of the public around the world. Once a darling of energy and still in relative abundant supplies, Coal provides significant levels of energy per gram consumed. Yet the end outcome is now known to be incredibly harmful to localised communities needing to breathe…

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How do you handled ‘the unsettled’ transitions?

Jul 11, 2014

At almost every stage in a shift in the way societies and organisations operate, there comes a period of extreme ‘unsettled-ness’. This period may show itself in the form of the doldrums (where things seem unusually calm but nothing seems to be happening) or in busyness (where there’s lots of activity but nothing seems to…

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Things I Should Have Said But Didn’t

Jun 17, 2014

Sometimes when we have the chance to say something, we don’t. About two years ago one of my uncles died and I should have spoken at his funeral. This personal post is what I should have said to the public gallery that attended ‘Hi everyone. I’m Marcus and Jim was one of my three uncles.…

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The Loud Secret: Underestimating your Internal Skill Sets

Jun 12, 2014

I’ve just posted a quick overview on LinkedIn called The ‘Loud Secret’ – Underestimating your internal skill sets which you can find at the link below   The ‘Loud Secret’: Underestimating Your Internal Skill sets. If you have any troubles accessing the story let me know and I’ll see what I can do

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Queues – coming to an Emergency Department near you

May 1, 2014

Health Care costs in Australia are rising and are likely to continue doing so as our population both grows and ages. Which means attempts to address this issue are warranted. Equally warranted is an assessment of the impacts for addressing or ignoring the issue. If, as has been mooted, the Australian Government introduces an $8…

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Towards the one step replacement of damaged DNA & promise of living forever

Apr 12, 2014

We’ve been getting far more effective at understanding the way our brains work especially as they relate to the idea of ‘mind’. Simply, the idea that we make decisions based on our conscious understanding, appears limited at best and highly flawed at worst. And now, the step towards longevity, perhaps even the fountain of youth,…

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