Tag: consumption

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 […]

Robots might turn out to be great coworkers

Robots might turn out to be great coworkers

In this June 26, 2015, file photo, workers assemble parts next to robot arms at an auto parts manufacture factory in Dafeng city in east China’s Jiangsu province. By Noah Smith / Bloomberg Opinion

The idea that automation will drive up unemployment or drive down wages—in other words, that robots will take people’s jobs—has become almost an article of faith for many Americans.

Everyone can point to instances of automation reducing demand for certain workers. And with so-called artificial intelligence (AI) technology improving rapidly, there’s widespread worry that many humans will simply be made obsolete. News outlets are full of […]

Robots will help people, not replace them

Robots will help people, not replace them

The idea that automation will drive up unemployment or drive down wages — in other words, that robots will take people’s jobs — has become almost an article of faith for many Americans.

Everyone can point to instances of automation reducing demand for certain workers. And with so-called artificial intelligence technology improving rapidly, there’s widespread worry that many humans will simply be made obsolete. News outlets are full of eye-grabbing forecasts of the percentage of jobs that will be replaced.

But those estimates are little more than guesswork. The truth is, nobody knows how many jobs will be replaced by automation, […]

How likely is an eight-hour working week?

How likely is an eight-hour working week?

AP Researchers may have found that eight hours of employment is the most “effective dose” per week for mental wellbeing – but, with the average closer to 40 hours, could cutting down the working week to one day ever become a reality?

The long-term trends look good for the leisure-seeker – at first glance at least. Since the 19th century, working hours have fallen sharply in industrialised nations, partly prompted by the demands made by organised labour.

In the late 1900s, UK workers put in more than 2,500 hours a year on average compared with 1,680 in 2017. But most of […]

Robots Might Turn Out to Be Great Co-Workers

Robots Might Turn Out to Be Great Co-Workers

(Bloomberg Opinion) — The idea that automation will drive up unemployment or drive down wages — in other words, that robots will take people’s jobs — has become almost an article of faith for many Americans. Everyone can point to instances of automation reducing demand for certain workers. And with so-called artificial intelligence technology improving rapidly, there’s widespread worry that many humans will simply be made obsolete. News outlets are full of eye-grabbing forecasts of the percentage of jobs that will be replaced.But those estimates are little more than guesswork. The truth is, nobody knows how many jobs will […]

Globalisation, automation and the history of work: Looking back to understand the future

Globalisation, automation and the history of work: Looking back to understand the future

The economy appears to be on the cusp of a third great transformation, driven by globalisation and automation. In this post, Richard Baldwin argues that the first step in thinking clearly about the future of work is to look at its historical transformations.

The future of work is a fascinating and important topic – and has been since steam power first got useful in the early 18th century. Since then, economies have struggled through two major economic transformations: when people moved from farms to factories, and when they moved from factories to offices.

Many believe that the economy is on […]

The good life after work

The good life after work

To manage the latest wave of automation, we must have ends that are more compelling than merely wanting more products and services. Robert Skidelsky Almost all ‘robots are coming’ stories follow a tried-and-true pattern. ‘Shop Direct puts 2,000 UK jobs at risk’ screams a typical headline . Then, quoting from authoritative reports from prestigious institutes and think tanks, the article in question usually alarms audiences with extravagant estimates of ‘jobs at risk’—that is, percentages of workers whose livelihoods are threatened by high-tech automation. To quote another representative example : ‘A new report suggests that the marriage of [artificial intelligence] […]

Chinese millennials are looking past factory jobs now. It’s all part of the plan

Chinese millennials are looking past factory jobs now. It's all part of the plan

Chinese millennials are looking past factory jobs now. It’s all part of the plan Life as one of China’s industrial worker ants did not suit Liu Xu: waking up early in factory accommodation, working for 11 hours operating a machine in the tool-making factory, eating all his meals in the factory canteen and going to bed, only to wake up and do it again.

His parents spent most of their lives in deadening jobs — his father on construction sites and his mother in factories — but 23-year-old Liu Xu lasted just a year in a factory in the southern […]

Appreciating direct care workers

Appreciating direct care workers

Let’s stop assuming there’s a relationship between low-valued work and low-paid workers

Rebecca Bryant, president and CEO of Lakes Region Community Services, a New Hampshire social services organization, penned an impressive opinion piece in the March 1-14 issue of the NH Business Review (“ NH’s eroding direct care workforce ”) that concretely highlighted the plight of direct support professionals, those who care for the elderly and disabled. To this cohort I would also add child care workers.

As a whole, this segment of the New Hampshire workforce is underpaid, underappreciated, disrespected and lacking in the placement of esteem they deserve […]

Future jobs will require the human touch, says Amber Rudd

Future jobs will require the human touch, says Amber Rudd

Image: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire/PA Images Increased automation will allow employers to offer roles that require distinct “human sensibilities” and allow workers to be more creative, according to the government.

Work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd said automation was “driving the decline of banal and repetitive tasks”, which would make way for jobs that value personal relationships, qualitative judgment and creativity as measures of success.

But as work tasks evolved, employees would need to prepare to change their careers multiple times in their working lives, she said in a speech delivered at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation today.“The pace of change […]