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

The future of… You

Jun 12, 2011

Futurist Marcus Barber will be joining ABC’s Vicki Kerrigan in Darwin for the first of an ongoing discussion about the future this Wednesday. Each week on Wednesday afternoon’s, Vicki and Marcus will discuss the future of something, how we prepare for the future, what the future looks like for some industries and other related futures…

Read More >

Innovation in Manufacturing – there really IS a Future! But action needs to happen NOW!

May 25, 2011

The panel session at the National Manufacturing Week 2011 went well though with four of us on the panel, time was quite compressed. Some really good thoughts from Phillip Chindamo from AIG, Damon Cantwell from Deloitte and Erol Harvey from Minifab, delightfully chaired by Sandra George from SEBN at the City of Greater Dandenong. Rather…

Read More >

Building on Innovation for a vibrant and sustainable future – a focus for future manufacturing

May 23, 2011

On Thursday I’ll be part of the panel that wraps up the National Manufacturing Week 2011 in Melbourne at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre under the theme of Meeting the challenges of the next generation of manufacturing with a focus on Innovation and Sustainability. It should be an interesting chat as we consider what…

Read More >

What Australia Can learn from Finland’s Education System

May 1, 2011

There’s lots to like about borrowing ideas from other areas especially where those ideas can lead to a significant positive shift. In the link below, Zaid Ali Alsagoff an educational blogging specialist highlights why the Finnish Education system stands as a potential model to embrace. And whilst there are examples of this type of thinking…

Read More >

The role of Environmental Scanning in planning departments

Apr 13, 2011

Environmental Scanning (ES) is the process of paying attention to the world in which you operate in order to identify and gain a sense of potential signals of change in how your world is developing. When discussing the idea of ‘change’ we need to be clear – a potential signal of change is likely to…

Read More >

What Victoria can learn from Western Australia’s weather

Mar 19, 2011

When it comes to water management, there’s something of potential value that Victoria could learn from Western Australia’s weather given discussions about new dams If you have almost 60 days straight of above 30 degree days with pretty much no rain, how do you fill the dam? Well you don’t but you’ve put all of…

Read More >

What natural disasters tell us about societies

Mar 16, 2011

The natural disasters we’ve seen recently around the world have shown us much about the communities in which they’ve occurred. The images emerging from Japan, New Zealand and Australia as they’ve faced earthquakes, tsumanis, floods and fires stands on stark contrast to the mainstream media stories that suggests people of the world are not willing…

Read More >

What to do when phone lines go down

Mar 6, 2011

Hi everyone – a quick note to let you know that our phones lines have been down for a while now and we are working on getting them fixed. Our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you. In the meantime, try using either our 1800 number where you can leave a message only…

Read More >

Can GM Foods feed the world?

Feb 28, 2011

ABC journalist Adam Stephen interviews Marcus Barber on the subject of GM foods and whether they might be more widely embraced as part of the global food requirements   The interview (about 3& 1/2 mins) is available in MP3 format here and a link to the shorter web article is here.  Some key points –…

Read More >

A Vision for Australian Manufacturing

Feb 16, 2011

South East Business Networks, the City of Greater Dandenong’s longest running business development program, is an exceptional avenue for learning about issues to do with Manufacturing. This week they provided one ‘out of the box’ with an excellent presentation by Professor Goran Roos, a worldclass expert on Manufacturing and currently South Australia’s Thinker in Residence.…

Read More >