Tag: academic

Universities are key to 4IR employment

Universities are key to 4IR employment

(John McCann/M&G) Universities in Africa, as with their counterparts globally, are required to contribute to the advancement and development of their societies. This needs to be underpinned by teaching and learning strategies that create well educated, socially conscious citizens who are equipped with skills for their era, in this case the fourth industrial revolution (4IR).

The 4IR is creating overarching conditions that have important implications for our universities: what we teach, what we research and our contribution to the economy, employment and society. This requires a deliberate leveraging and repositioning of our universities to optimise our role in reconstructing South […]

In tune with technology

In tune with technology

Samir Kapoor, Academician and Consultant, Delhi We are the beginning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Developments in genetics, artificial intelligence, robotics, nanotechnology, 3D printing and biotechnology are happening around us. This will lay the foundation for a revolution more comprehensive and all-encompassing than anything we have ever seen. In many industries and countries, the most in-demand occupations or specialties of today did not exist 10 or even five years ago, and the pace of change is set to accelerate. Children entering primary school today will end up working in completely new job types that don’t yet exist. In such […]

I, robot

I, robot

If you visit a website called willrobotstakemyjob.com, you can discover the probability of automation, at some point in the future, rendering your job either obsolete or safe. Since the Gazette is for lawyers, I can save you the bother – it is 4%.

This compares with a mere 0.8% for priests, 11% for journalists, 67% for bus drivers, and 94% for accountants and auditors, which perhaps goes a long way towards explaining why the ‘Big Four’ auditing and accountancy firms are making inroads into the legal space!

The calculation is based on a methodology developed by Oxford University researchers looking at […]

Hone the skills of Japanese youth to shoulder burdens of the 21st century

Hone the skills of Japanese youth to shoulder burdens of the 21st century

Japan is a land of opportunities for young people if they have the right skills. | GETTY IMAGES UNITED, ARAB EMIRATES – As the United Nations marks World Youth Skills Day on Monday, we are reminded of just how vital it is that young people are equipped to help build the sustainable, inclusive and stable societies we want them to inherit. The 1.2 billion young people aged 15 to 24 years, who make up 16 percent of the global population, are the future of our world. However, young people are almost three times more likely to be unemployed than […]

Weekly Bot Brief on Robotic Research and Investment Review 7-5-2019

Weekly Bot Brief on Robotic Research and Investment Review 7-5-2019

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A A Robotics Industry News"There is no force on earth more powerful than an idea whose time has come" -Victor Hugo Bot Index Highlights: Despite several showings of strength by five components in the abbreviated market last week, the Bot Index rose only 1% versus the S & P 500’s 1.65% increase. The broad market’s rise did not particularly help the Bot Index as 16 of the 30 components experienced declines during the week. Only two stocks, however, experienced significant reductions in shareholder value: Cognex Corp . who fell 7.37% and Faro Technologies […]

Manufacturing Job Losses are from Trade not Automation

Manufacturing Job Losses are from Trade not Automation

Many people today are concerned about automation. And not without good reason – automation has been blamed for the dramatic job losses seen in manufacturing over the last few decades. And we are warned that automation will soon come for a wider range of jobs – which some think could cause "Depression-level" unemployment .

However, last year an paper was published which overturned the consensus narrative on what exactly is responsible for the job losses the U.S. has seen in the manufacturing sector. Many experts and economists have argued for decades that automation, not foreign trade is responsible for the […]

The robots are definitely coming and will make the world a more unequal place

The robots are definitely coming and will make the world a more unequal place

So the robots are coming for our jobs, are they? Yawn. That’s such an old story. Goes back to Elizabeth I and the stocking frame, if my memory serves me right. Machines have been taking our jobs forever. But economists, despite their reputation as practitioners of the “dismal science”, have always been upbeat about that. Sure, machines destroy jobs, they say. But hey, the new industries that new technology enables create even more new jobs. Granted, there may be a bit of “disruption” between destruction and creation, but that’s just capitalist business as usual. Besides, it’s progress, innit?

We have […]

If there’s digital revolution happening, the Democratic presidential candidates seem mostly unaware

Plenty of American had probably never heard of Andrew Yang before last night’s Democratic presidential debate. Many were also probably unfamiliar with Yang’s big idea to pay a “ universal basic income ” to all Americans. And as he explained during the debate, “…this is the move we have to make particularly as technology is now automating away millions of American’s jobs.” REUTERS/Issei Kato Actually the automation threat is worse than that. Automation will affect something like, I dunno, 100% of jobs — at least in some way or another. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean mass unemployment. Just […]

One day of paid work a week is enough for mental health perks

One day of paid work a week is enough for mental health perks

Researchers discovered that eight hours of work per week reduces mental health issues by 30 percent.

Working a full-time job, roughly 40 hours per week, does not result in further mental health gains.

Societies are going to have to grapple with a new distribution of work as AI and robotics will soon replace many jobs. Alibaba co-founder, Jack Ma, came under fire in April when calling a twelve-hour a day, six-day workweek a " blessing ." He defended his statement by claiming China’s booming economy is the result of booting out "slackers," yet the sentiment reeked […]

Preparing Education for Industry 4.0

Preparing Education for Industry 4.0

The following is an excerpt from “Towards Education 3.0: The Changing Goalposts for Education” by Chris Goldspink & Robert Kay. To download the full white paper and others in the Corwin Educator Series, click here .

Education has always been concerned with preparing children and young people with the skills and capabilities they need for a full and rewarding future. However, within this statement there exists a significant assumption: that we understand what the future will be. History has shown that as a species we are not particularly good at conceiving of futures that are radically different from what […]