Lawyer, doctor, dentist … These are likely to be what you answered when asked at pre-school what you wanted to be when you grew up. But now, as you enter the working world, chances are these have changed to something along the lines of virtual and augmented reality designer, coder, data scientist or robotics expert.

That's where Vodacom's FutureJobsFinder portal comes in. It tests your skills and interests, then recommends the perfect digital job for you. It even helps you find the right training to put you on the path to achieving your dreams, and links you to relevant ads for jobs that are available right now. Read more about FutureJobsFinder here.

Vodacom NXT LVL also hooks you up with the Vodacom Careers Portal, which lets you browse some of South Africa's top careers website for free. Read more about that here. 

With the rapidly changing world of work in mind, we asked a couple of top futurists which skills they think will be essential in years to come. 

‘Machines and algorithms are set to take over tasks that are repetitive, rules-based and standardised, even if they are quite complicated. This includes everything from driving a car to your family doctor diagnosing what’s wrong with you,’ says Graeme Codrington, futurist at TomorrowToday Global. He advises young people not to choose a career that could be replaced by a machine, but adds: ‘The good news is although many tasks can be done by machines, most jobs also have elements of work that machines won’t be able to do anytime soon. These are tasks that require creativity, complex problem-solving, intuition, empathy and a human connection. People can future-proof their careers by developing skills in these areas.’

Future-proof your career

Bronwyn Williams, trend translator at Flux Trends, says young people should think strategically about the careers they pursue and the skills and education in which they invest. ‘There is little point in spending large sums of money on a four-year IT degree that will be outdated and redundant by the time you graduate. In fast-moving industries, skills and experience often count more than a set academic syllabus,’ she explains.

Further, she says you should be comfortable with the fact that you will change careers (let alone jobs) multiple times throughout your life, and should be prepared for life-long learning and up-skilling.

Analytical skills, specifically technical data analysis and strategic management analysis, she believes, will be in high demand in future. Other areas Bronwyn says are worth building expertise in are technical design skills and ‘warm body’ skills such as caregiving, counselling, coaching and personal training. ‘Pastors and personal trainers are among the least automatable professions,’ she adds. 

According to research by The Future of Work Academy (https://thefutureofworkacademy.com/), says Graeme, the key skills needed for success in the 2020s include personal intelligence, diversity intelligence, horizon scanning and what-if thinking, complex problem-solving and adaptive intelligence, creativity and intuition, curiosity and storytelling, entrepreneurship and initiative, and tech savviness.

Watch this space

‘Even if the predictions that 50% of global jobs are at risk of automation are correct, the truth is as those old jobs become ‘extinct’ new jobs, jobs that we haven’t even thought of yet, will emerge,’ says Bronwyn.

Some exciting jobs she predicts for the future include:

• Robot trainers: Artificial intelligence programmes and robots need training in empathy and interpersonal interactions, which will create opportunities for people without technology backgrounds to train robots to think more like humans and develop soft skills.
• Human-robot facilitators: As we work more with artificial intelligence, HR departments will need to develop training and dispute resolution functions for building working relationships between human and non-human workers.
• Body part designers: With the progress of 3D and bioprinting technology, we will see an increased demand for people with design and scientific skill sets who can design bioprinted body parts and even designer babies.
• War-drone remote-control pilots, drone air-space traffic controllers and vertical city traffic flow designers.

Graeme adds to the list of future jobs:

• Social media scrubber: Someone to clean up your online history for you.
• Internet of Things home and office automation engineer/installer.
• Media verifier: A specific type of journalist who can verify genuine media and spot fake news.
• Privacy and personal online security consultant.
• Genetic designer: A person who writes the code to shape your future baby’s DNA.
• Asteroid miner.

Find your job of the future

Register on Vodacom's FutureJobsFinder portal to find out which digital job will suit you. Then, follow the links to find training and tips that can help you achieve your goals. The future is exciting. Ready? 

Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash