What careers advice will you give your students entering the workforce in 2030?

We live in a dynamic, ever changing world. With the 4^th Industrial revolution bringing in artificial Intelligence, virtual reality and 3D printers we will witness radical shift in the career industry within 10 years where people with high skills will be easily absorbed and unskilled jobs will be soon replaced by automation. The World Economic Forum mentions that 65% of students entering primary school will land in completely new jobs in the future.

So what career advices could we give our students for their future?

Well, observe the top emerging industries for the future. These industries are going to provide your new jobs.

1.    Artificial Intelligence - The industry projected to be worth an eye-watering $70 billion by 2020.

2.     Drones - PwC says “In Australia, drones are already being used in various capacities like undertaking mining survey work. They are being trialled for parcel delivery.

3.    Virtual reality – Expected to disrupt today’s current entertainment ecosystem.
Goldman Sachs predicts that the whole augmented reality market will be worth $80 billion by 2025.

4.    Wearables – We have seen a rise of wearable technology, from fitness trackers to Apple Watch to Google Glass and Microsoft’s HoloLens. In future, it is predicted that normal-looking earrings will track your heart rate, body temperature and blood oxygen levels, providing you with vital health statistics.

5.    Mobile payments – Amazon recently opened a store ‘Amazon go’ where you all you need to do is tap to enter the store, grab what you need and your Amazon account automatically gets charged. 

6.    Cryptocurrencies – We have all heard of ‘bitcoin’. The virtual currency has the potential to blow things wide open.

7.    Genomics - Study of the entire set of genes found in living things, including humans, plants, animals and even viruses. Break pathing research is going to be conducted in this field for human enhancements. https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/genomicresearch/nextsteps

8.    Internet of things – Industry according to Mckinsey Global Institute could generate up to $11 trillion. So, if there’s ice on the bridge, the same sensors in the concrete will detect it and communicate the information via the wireless internet to your car. Your car will instruct the driver to slow down, and if the driver doesn’t, then the car will slow down for him.

9.    Robotics – Already around but now soon to be every home phenomenon.

10. 3D printing - From printing live tissues for testing to complete airplane wings that are lighter and more aerodynamic – 3D printing will continue to push industries to new heights.

11. Service Industries –Thriving as service sector jobs requiring social interaction skills and emotional intelligence will become increasingly important like counsellors, psychotherapists, teaching etc.

12. Space tourism - with the appearance of Virgin Galactic, shortage of rare earth elements on Earth (www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-17357863) we may in future need space miners, if we develop colonies on the moon and Mars, exobiologists needed to develop food plants.

13. Social network organisers and developers - Personal image and branding will gain prominence as society is more commercialised.

14. Personal fitness trainers, dieticians and image consultants will be required to help people look good and healthy.

15. Entertainment Industry –Will always have high demand and more diverse streams will be added like on- line publishing, multiformat journalists, book digitisers.

16. Business and Law - Reducing financial costs will become more and more important. Financial technologists trained to analyse financial trading will help investors reduce risks and costs.

A wide array of new careers is open for today’s generation. All they need to do is invest heavily into development of 21^st century skills and STEAM learning so that the future shapes up as per their beckoning.