HiQ Magazine | The jobs will disapear, or will they?

THE JOBS WILL DISAPEAR, OR WILL THEY? Digital technology and robots are not going to make us redundant.

We will, however, be working with other things in the future.

To manage this transition, schools will need to become better at preparing students for tomorrow’s world. So says Bo Dahlbom, Professor of Information Technolog y at the IT University in Gothenburg, Sweden.

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esearchers in Oxford published a study a couple of years back stating that almost half of today’s working tasks will be automated within the next twenty years. Understandably many people were worried: What if my job, too, is to disappear? Will I be replaced by robots and sophisticated IT systems? However, according to Bo Dahlbom, who researches into IT and how schools can prepare children for the labour market of the future, there is no need for concern.

“First of all,” he says, “it will take longer than what has been predicted. The fact that the technology exists does not necessarily mean that the technology is widely adopted.

Secondly, new jobs will be created. People will be needed to take care of the robots.”

BO DAHLBOM Leading debater and public speaker on IT issues and the internet’s role in social development.

A professor at the IT University in Gothenburg and R&D Director with Sustainable Innovation AB.

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Nonetheless we are facing the prospect of huge changes in the labour market. Digital technology has already heralded the beginning of the end for numerous administrative professions.

Bank clerks and office workers who once registered payments or managed simple routine tasks have been replaced by IT systems.

Robots have already taken over production line jobs in many factories and in the future, when autonomous vehicles take to the roads, driving may well be another profession that belongs to the past. Even highly qualified professionals such as doctors will be affected by the march of technology.

“When artificial intelligence systems become better than doctors at making accurate diagnoses, the power of the medical profession will be undermined,” Professor Dahlbom predicts.

So what professions will remain? Are we all going to work on programming robots?

“No, by no means. Digital technology will lead to the evolution of new professions in the same way as industrialisation did. We will, for example, need to adapt our legislation, rules, practices and behaviour to the new reality.

Someone will need to develop and launch new services. Someone will have to make sure that the transition to new ways of doing things actually works. All of this will create huge

numbers of jobs,” Dahlbom contends.

Also, as more and more people around the world see their living standards improve, consumption will increase, creating even more job opportunities. Professor Dahlbom believes that there will be more work in the entertainment and tourist industries, for example. Once the inhabitants of today’s poorer nations have more money in their pocket, they "DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY WILL LEAD TO THE EVOLUTION OF NEW PROFESSIONS IN THE SAME WAY AS INDUSTRIALISATION DID." too will want to travel and see the world. The downside of this increase in consumption is, of course, increasing pressure on the planet’s finite resources. So in the years to come many people will be engaged to work on environmental issues and sustainability.

Presumably there will also be brand new services that we are unable to foresee or comprehend today. There are already lots of people working in professions that no one had even heard of just five or ten years ago.

The question is whether today’s young people are properly equipped to respond to the

ROBOTS AS WAITERS Will the robots take over all professions and make us unemployed in the future?

demands that follow in the wake of such rapid developments in society. How can schools prepare students for the challenges and opportunities of the future?

In Sweden the government has tasked the National Agency for Education with producing national IT strategies and clarifying the schools’ responsibility for strengthening pupils’ digital competence. In March 2016 the agency issued its first proposal to introduce programming into the curriculum. There is much to suggest that this will not become a separate subject but will be integrated into maths and technology lessons from the first grade onwards.

Professor Dahlbom is not convinced that this goes far enough. He thinks Swedish schools are out of step with the times.

“After twelve years at school pupils are totally unprepared for modern working life.

They know nothing about how trade and industry work, or what is expected of them in their future professional roles. They don’t know what engineers or other professionals actually do at work and they have neither contacts nor competence,” he says.

The problem is that school has become its own isolated world. Dahlbom believes that, in order to keep pace with the rest of society and

to benefit from the knowledge that is out there, schools must be more closely integrated with working life.

“I see no reason why school should be seen as a building, a physical place where pupils spend most of their time. Instead more tuition should take place in real workplaces, where pupils can work on real projects and learn skills that they will actually find useful. That would make them considerably better prepared for adult life and the demands of paid employment. After all, isn’t that the most important task that school has?” he says.

"MUCH OF WHAT IS TAUGHT TODAY IS OUTMODED. DOES EVERYONE IN TODAY’S SOCIETY REALLY NEED TO LEARN NEEDLEWORK AND WOODWORK?"

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bviously there are also some important subjects, such as history, that perhaps can’t be learnt in an ordinary workplace. But is it really necessary to be in school to learn? In the same way that IT is creating new opportunities for working in places other than the office, why can’t pupils use technology to sit wherever they choose with their computers and follow

what the teacher is saying? Professor Dahlbom reasons.

Many teachers do their best to arrange more study visits and longer periods of work experience, but they say they are limited by all the demands that are already made in the curriculum.

“That makes it hard to implement any changes. That’s why I think it’s time to ditch the curriculum!” he says, adding, “Anyway, so much of what is taught today is outmoded.

Does everyone in today’s society really need to learn needlework and woodwork?”

Wouldn’t it be better to replace those lessons with programming?

“At least that is a skill that is actually in demand. The snag is that if we develop a course to train today’s teachers in programming, it takes a long time before they can teach it. The knowledge then shared with pupils is already out of date. But we can solve that problem by making sure that pupils spend more time in the working environment, because programming has already become such an integral part of so many jobs.”

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