Jobs of the future: Universities focus on transferable skills
With 85 per cent of the jobs that will exist in 2030 still yet to be invented, universities have a new focus on transferable skills and preparing students for rapid change.
Tertiary
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Educators are investing heavily in the jobs of tomorrow, with a number of courses and initiatives being launched to prepare future workers for new roles.
With 85 per cent of the jobs that will exist in 2030 still yet to be invented, new training programs will have a strong focus on transferable skills.
Bond University deputy vice chancellor (academic) Professor Keitha Dunstan says courses aim to cater for skills that are known to be needed.
“While we don’t know what all of these (new) jobs will look like, we do know there’s going to be continuing, rapid change and people will move from job to job,’’ Dunstan says.
“So the focus (of training in the future) may be not so much about job outcomes but about what types of skills students will learn.’’
Bond University will offer four new bachelor degrees next year, in digital transformation, entrepreneurial transformation, health transformation and legal transformation.
Dunstan says the degrees will suit a range of new careers including zero impact analyst, crowd-funding specialist, chief trust officer and mobile marketing jedi, who will use mobile and cloud data to develop marketing campaigns and socially connected experiences.
“We’re not saying with 100 per cent certainty that there’s going to be a great demand for those mobile marketing jedis but it is the type of job that we think is going to exist in the future,’’ she says. “If we can hypothesise, and conjecture, what those (future) jobs will look like then it gets us closer to realising what skills people are going to need.’’
Technology expert Nathan Steiner, head of systems engineering at Veeam Software, says training organisations must offer more flexible learning outcomes to cater for future workforce requirements.
He expects students to increasingly undertake subjects from a range of disciplines, according to their interests and career objectives, rather than be constrained to the offerings of a single area of study.
“Students will not necessarily look for courses that are rigid, fixed and prescriptive,’’ Steiner says.
“The skills that will be needed will be soft skills, like emotional intelligence, adaptability, problem solving — all of those skills are going to be really important.
“So students will look to courses that allow them to unlock those skillsets in order to thrive.’’
Ford Australia, in partnership with Deakin and Griffith universities, has released its 100 Jobs of the Future report and online quiz to help Australians explore the future of work.
Griffith University teaching and curriculum transformation deputy director Professor Ruth Bridgstock says the report identified life-long learning as key to employment success in the future.
“Through our research for the 100 Jobs of the Future report, we predict a more complex and changing world of work but one where young people will be able to find or create exciting work opportunities that make the most of their interests and skills,’’ Bridgstock says.
Originally published as Jobs of the future: Universities focus on transferable skills