The Future Labour Market – A Paper discussing the future of the Labour Market for reflection and strategic planning.
Not so long ago, when most people stayed in the same line of work for a lifetime, “career” was another word for “job.” In today’s changing world, it’s more accurate and helpful to think of your career as the sum total of all your work, learning and life roles. Planning your career has evolved into an ongoing work in progress and an important skill to have.
As the world enters the year 2014 facing a stark reality: one in three workers in the labour force will currently either be unemployed or poor. It is important to anticipate and react to future changes in the environment in advance for the effectiveness and sustainability of our community and economy.
The world keeps changing and so does the labour market. Today in most regions and countries labour markets are characterized by shorter working careers, large informal sectors and vulnerable jobs.
As most of us are aware, the employers today have a wider selection of applicants applying for an advertised employment due to the fact that unemployment is on the rise in comparison to the ratio of available employment.
Every parent sees endless possibilities and great hope in the eyes of a child. As a nation, when we look at today’s children, we see tomorrow’s leaders — scientists, teachers, doctors and diplomats. But for our children to thrive and America to stay competitive in the 21st-century global economy.
As a Khoja Shia Ithnasheri Community, one of the most confronting aspects of looking at our children’s’ future employment opportunities is the fact that many of the jobs that they’ll be involved in within 10 years let alone 20 years have not even been invented. We’ll still need plumbers in 2050, we’ll still need electricians, but those sorts of jobs will be supported by other types of very technical-type jobs that we haven’t even thought of.
In addition to this, trends in the career market are changing towards knowledge based, high-tech, low carbon and cyber and digital security economies. This trend will also be felt in emerging and developing economies too, particularly in the Global Cities.
To give the best available opportunities to our community children, it is vital for them to be guided towards the emerging career trends to ensure that they secure a lucrative employment. Keeping this in mind, The World Federation’s objective of this paper is to address two remaining action points that are part of the current term. These two topics are:
• Identify careers of the 2020s and 2030s in Europe, North America, Africa, India and Pakistan.
• Undertake horizon scanning of education (for our community)
A Paper discussing the future of the Labour Market for reflection and strategic planning was has been prepared by the Education portfolio of the World Federation and presented at the 6th Executive Council Meeting in Mumbai (4th Jan 2013).
This paper has looked at different trends in both developing countries and developed countries focusing on where our jamaats are based, and which career would suit best these countries. The trend in the advanced economies of the world is towards knowledge based, high-tech, low carbon and cyber and digital security economies. This trend will also be felt in emerging and developing economies too, particularly in the Global Cities.
There is a correlation between educational qualifications and earnings. In other words, those with the qualifications and skills that employers want are able to command a higher premium in wages.
Members of the Khoja Shia Isthnasheri Muslim Community should consider education and degree courses which contain an element of work experience. Alternatively, hands-on experience can be gained with relevant employment during the holidays or for a requisite period after graduation. Evidence suggests that having relevant work experience, taking a gap year to work in related career and work exchange programme can really improve the chances of getting a job.
It is important for all our students to attend a career counseling session. Course selection that is undertaken by our students with no reference to the individual’s preference and personality leads to a mismatch. It is important that we train our community teachers with career counseling courses so that they are able to advise students on what course they should take for the future labor market. It is important to sore this area up with external resources whilst we build up our own capability.
The above can be done by incorporating a counseling clinic and offer psychometric testing, which is a sophisticated tool towards aligning ones strengths with the possible vocation that the individual is most likely to succeed.
It is also important to be aware of the potential opportunities that may occur in emerging sectors such as robotics and biosciences for example. These emerging sectors offer great potential. Many emerging sectors are science-based and require ability in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects. The paper gives a range of suggestions of the recommendation from this study.
The World Federation with its regional partners needs to work on a policy to answer the following question; “What are we doing to up skill our entrepreneurs with their own businesses to become more like the western companies with proper structures in place to ensure that we are seen as more professional?” – Some proposed solutions have been provided for this questioned and detailed in this paper.
We would like to undertake wider consultation from the community members and would request each and every one of you to have a read through of the paper and provide the education team at The World Federation with feedback and comments regarding the written paper of the Future Labour Market. Your opinion and feedback will assist us on the direction to move forward with our regional partners.
Read the Future Labour Market Paper Executive Summary
Read the Future Labour Market Paper
Please write to us at education@world-federation.org to give us your feedback.