Here Come the Robots … James Penstone, Cross Campus Principal
I
love the start of the new school year. After a relaxing holiday, most people return full of smiles and energy and a shared sense of purpose. I hope you are all enjoying the start of the new academic year, and I’d like to say a very warm welcome to all individuals and families who have recently joined us. A new school year also means a lot of change. Change can be unsettling, especially if your change has involved coming from another school, and possibly from another country. Even students, families and members of staff who have been with us for some time may feel unsettled as they make the transition into a different part of the school. If this is you, please do share any anxieties or questions that you might have. There are various support networks across the school, and experience shows that sharing anxieties or questions (no matter how small they might seem) can go a long way towards easing their burden and finding solutions. For the rest of this article, I want to talk about technology. Much has already been said and written about the disruptive effect that new technologies are having on our students’ current and future lives. We continue to grapple with the challenges which new online technologies pose for our lifestyles. Too much screen time, being vulnerable on social networks, game addiction, the distraction of smart phones and tablets are all themes that we continue to discuss and share the best solutions. This is an ongoing conversation well worth having. There is another way in which new technologies are impacting on the future of our students, and one which could have an even greater effect on their quality of life. This change is getting less attention than all of the immediate stuff about screens, smartphones and social networks. But we need to talk about it too … Recently, I asked my Year 7 Learning to Learn class to predict the future. I asked them how the world of work could be affected by big changes between now and the time they could be graduating from university. They were quick to point out some significant world trends. Population growth, people living longer, the possibility of new and different types of conflict, and even interplanetary travel were all discussed. So too was the increasing automation of some jobs. Computers, robots, and rapidly emerging artificial intelligence are highly likely to replace the labour of humans in many industries and jobs. This is a safe prediction because it is already happening. Two years ago, a study was conducted in the UK by the University of Oxford and Deloitte. They found that, in the next 20 years, about 35% of all current jobs in the UK are at high risk of computerisation. Their findings have been well reported in a very accessible, interactive web page which I recommend you visit if this topic interests you: Will a robot take your job? Here are just a few of the many jobs that the research team think are very likely to be automated in the coming two decades: • Financial accounts manager (97.6% chance of automation) • Chartered and certified accountant (95.3% chance) • Inspector of standards and regulations (94.5% chance) • Medical secretary (85.1% chance) • IT operations technician (77.8% chance) • Legal associate professional (66% chance)
“In the next 20 years, about 35% of all current jobs in the UK are at high risk of computerisation.”
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Bangkok Patana School News
25/08/2017