Robot-Proof Work Capabilities

Abstract

Jobs are changing fast as many firms automate or augment work-tasks. Constant change is the new normal as technology relentlessly infiltrates all industries and businesses. This puts pressure on employees to upskill and stay relevant. While some jobs are relatively immune from disruption, these are in the minority. Most employees will need to continually build the necessary skills and capabilities that will help them safeguard their current careers or shift to entirely new careers or industries. This chapter describes an approach to answer the following question: What are the core work capabilities that students and employees should be learning now to future-proof their careers? The authors apply a prediction of automation and augmentation to work-tasks to model the change to the future workforce and analyse the remaining work skills and abilities required in the future. These future skills and abilities are further grouped to determine 32 future-work capabilities, including 13 digital and data literacies that can be targeted by employees, firms, and governments in L&D programs.