Reflecting on your employability for a digital future
How do changing skills/society affect your future employability?
Contents
1. Introduction
As we’ve seen throughout our Digital Society course, technology is changing at what seems like an exponential rate. We’ve looked at how this rapid change affects our lives, including issues around interconnectedness, the Internet of Things, Smart Cities, online identity, ethics, simulated spaces, digital engagement and AI.
In this topic you will:
- Reflect on this Digital Society course
- Look at how changing technology creates new types of jobs while having an impact on existing roles and job descriptions
- Consider how technology impacts the skills you’ll need for future jobs and your employability
2. Reflecting on the course
At the start of this course you were asked to send a ‘time capsule’ email to yourself. Hopefully you’ve kept this safe! Find the email, open it now and spend a few minutes reflecting on what you wrote back then, answering the following questions:
- Was the course what you expected? Have you learned what you hoped to learn about our ‘digital society’?
- Did you experience any ‘WOW!’ moments or turning points during the course? Was there anything that really surprised you or radically changed the way you thought about the topic?
- Is there anything that you would still like to learn or experience, and how might you achieve this?
💬 Contribute
Read the following prompt then add your contribution in the box below. Responses from the same person are the same colour. All comments are anonymous.
Share something about a topic on the course that you found interesting or surprising, and tell us why it caught your attention.
3. Digital society and the future of work
On this course, we have explored many facets of the way we live which have been, and continue to be, disrupted by technology, from smart cities to surveillance capitalism. One facet which will undoubtedly have a major impact on your future lives is the world of work, or the labour market. In this section, we will focus on the ways that digital technology is transforming the labour market at an ever-increasing pace.
We will look at:
- New jobs springing up, existing roles being reconfigured, and some traditional jobs becoming obsolete. Can we predict what jobs will be needed in 10–20 years’ time?
- Changes to the skillsets being sought by employers, to harness the power of technology effectively and focus on what makes us uniquely human.
- Changes to traditional recruitment processes. How are companies harnessing the power of AI both to speed up and to improve consistency/avoid unconscious bias in the recruitment of staff? And does automating aspects of the recruitment process really reduce bias and make recruitment fairer?
✅ Poll
Read the following prompt then vote below. All responses are anonymous.
How well prepared do you feel for a career in an age of automation?
AI is disrupting the job market — what will your future career look like?
If you voted that you didn’t feel very well prepared for a career in an age of AI and automation, perhaps this was partly due to uncertainty about what jobs will be available and what skills future employers will require you to be able to demonstrate. Certainly, in the media there is much speculation about the scale of the future disruption to the job market, with a 2021 report by McKinsey Global Institute writing about the new skills we will need as AI technologies transform our workplaces; many existing roles are also likely to undergo significant changes.
The Economist article “Your job is (probably) safe from Artificial Intelligence” argued that “no one can predict with any certainty where a technology as fundamentally unpredictable as AI will take humans”.
If we skip back to 2017, futurologist David Smith and Professor Lynda Gratton produced a report which suggested the 100 jobs that may exist in the future, from Memory Augmentation Surgeon to Longevity Provider and my own favourite, Drowned City Specialist. Skipping forward, the World Economic Forum publication, The Future of Jobs 2023, looks at how the employment world ‘could’ potentially evolve over the next 5 years and estimates that a quarter of current jobs are expected to change. However, most expert predictions on what the job market will look like in the future are highly speculative and couched in maybes.
While for now it seems that blue-collar jobs are the ones most affected by automation, AI capability already exists and is being developed to perform a very wide range of functions in skilled jobs, and sectors such as law and healthcare are already seeing changes. In many cases, the aim of introducing AI in the work of highly skilled workers is not to replace these workers; instead, it is often to take over the more routine aspects of the role in order to free workers up to focus on the really important ‘human’ part of the job.
One example is cute-looking Moxi, a robot nurse assistant developed by Diligent Robotics in Austin, Texas, which has been designed to reduce mundane tasks and free up valuable cognitive time for nurses. The aim is for Moxi to “run approximately 30% of tasks nurses do that don’t involve interacting with patients, like running errands around the floor or dropping off specimens for analysis at a lab”.
The American Psychological Assocation (APA) carried out the 2023 Work in America survey and asked a range of questions around Artificial intelligence, monitoring technology, and psychological well-being in the workplace. From the survey, the results highlighted that nearly 2 out of 5 workers were concerned about how AI will impact on their jobs and possibly remove their jobs. These concerns are valid, but as with every technological shift, it often creates an overall increase in the number of employment opportunities available, as demonstrated by the Statista bar chart below.
It’s not all negative, though: those who held a more positive view towards AI and technology argued that people would adapt and re-skill, that robots like Moxi would free us from the drudgery of the routine parts of our jobs, and, crucially, that:
“Many jobs require uniquely human characteristics such as empathy, creativity, judgement, or critical thinking and that jobs of this nature will never succumb to widespread automation”.
However, many commentators were less optimistic, claiming that a relatively small proportion of (mainly very high-skilled) jobs would be safe from the risk of automation and that the automation of whole swathes of lower and middle-level jobs across all sectors could lead to greater income inequalities and economic decline. Others expressed concern that technological change was now proceeding at a rate which is too fast for people to re-skill, and that our traditional education systems are failing to prepare people for this ‘brave new labour market’. One expert cited the example of his taxi driver, who had already changed jobs once due to the automation of his previous role, and faced the prospect of being displaced again by a driverless car.
“The central question of 2025 will be: What are people for in a world that does not need their labor, and where only a minority are needed to guide the ’bot-based economy?”
Stowe Boyd — Lead researcher at Gigaom Research(from AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs — Pew Research Center)
How can we future-proof our careers?
While it’s undoubtedly fun to predict what sorts of new jobs may be in demand in the future and which may disappear altogether, it may be more helpful to focus our attention on the skills and qualities we humans need to cultivate in order to work effectively with AI. This leads us to pose the philosophical question of what makes us uniquely human, but also to consider what we will need in practice to get the best out of the machines we are working with. Experts tend to agree that the kinds of skills which will be required in the future fall into these main areas:
- Higher-level technical skills to build and develop new technologies
- Higher-level social and emotional skills, such as managing people, counselling and caring
- Higher-level cognitive skills, such as applying expertise, interpreting data and strategic decision-making
- Artistic and creative skills, such as artisan wood turning, dancing and inventing
Technology and recruitment — a force for good, or not?
Technology is not just changing what we will be doing once we are in work; it is also transforming the hiring process. We have all read stories about both famous and ordinary people losing their jobs over an ill-judged social media post many years earlier, so it is perhaps not surprising that many US recruiters check candidates’ social media in advance to avoid such expensive hiring mistakes. This article in the Financial Times describes how companies like Fama Technologies use machine learning to sift vast quantities of online content from their corporate clients’ employees and job seekers for red flags, such as instances of racism, misogyny and drug use. The article goes on to explain that in the UK, EU data protection regulations mean that companies can only collect and keep data on applicants and employees if relevant to performance. However, there is no law against just looking at a person’s publicly available profiles, and this casual look may then influence hiring decisions, even if only at a subconscious level. This practice has created a market for online reputation management companies such as BrandYourself, which claims to help individuals to avoid this problem by offering services such as online reputation risk scans, social media clean-up software and dark-web scans.
Is graduate recruitment all fun and games?
Gamification is one of the latest buzzwords in graduate recruitment — this involves recruiters asking candidates to play online games which reveal behaviours in order to assess factors such as motivation, personality and cultural fit. This article on the TargetJobs graduate careers website describes a new twist on these standard gamified assessments. The new tests “use virtual reality technology to create an immersive and interactive environment in which graduates experience simulated scenarios and attempt to solve problems or complete challenges”. Recruiters are motivated by a desire to create something fun and exciting to appeal to young applicants, as well as to make the recruitment process fairer and more meritocratic. Sarah Harte, Graduate Talent Manager at law firm Taylor Wessing, argues that “by using game-based assessments there is the potential to reduce adverse impact in the selection process due to the fact that game-based assessments do not focus on experience or background.”
But does AI make recruitment fairer?
Another area of recruitment which has become highly automated in large organisations is the initial screening of candidates’ applications. Many companies now use AI to screen CVs and video presentations to process the data of the candidate. This data can include “visual elements (e.g. smiles), verbal (e.g. key words used), and/or vocal (e.g. the tone of voice). In some cases, the platform then passes a report with an interpretation of the job candidate’s performance to the employer”.
Although this example is slightly out of date now, it does raise interesting questions around ethnicity and the recruitment process. HR professionals are aware of the problem of ‘unconscious bias’ leading to discrimination in recruitment, highlighted in this experiment in which two identical CVs were sent to employers, but under different names, with the shocking result that ‘Adam’ received three times as many interview offers as ‘Mohamed’, even though the CVs listed exactly the same skills, qualifications and experience. However, many believe that AI screening makes recruitment not only more efficient, but also fairer, as the human issue of unconscious bias is removed from the equation. Dr Sladjana Norskov argues in Robotics and AI Recruitment and Selection Practices that “AI and robotics have the potential to overcome some of the current limitations related to unintentional discrimination of applicants”.
For companies that are committed to reducing bias in their recruitment, perhaps with the aim of improving diversity in their workforce, there are examples of where technology can help. One company, Seattle-based Textio, has developed what it describes as augmented writing software, Textio Hire. The company claims to have mined data from half a billion documents to identify gender-biased language which is likely to deter candidates from applying for jobs. The software draws on these data to help recruiters create new job adverts which avoid these biases, highlighting off-putting words and suggesting alternatives in real time.
💬 Contribute
Read the following prompt then add your contribution in the box below. Responses from the same person are the same colour. All comments are anonymous.
Respond to any question covered in this topic, for example:
* To what extent is it possible to future-proof your career?
* To what extent can technology be considered a ‘force for good’ in recruitment? What risks and benefits might AI bring and for whom?
4. Your skills and employability
We have explored how people may require different skillsets to be successful in the labour markets of the future. However, as now, a mixture of both ‘hard’ (technical) skills and ‘soft’ (communication, cognitive and creative) skills will be needed. You may have heard the term ‘transferable skills’. This refers to the idea that many skills can be developed in one context and then used confidently and competently in a different context. This is useful when you are a student making the leap from your studies into your first period of work experience or a graduate job, as these skills are developed in a very wide range of situations such as on your course, as well as through work experience, part-time jobs, extra-curricular activities or interests, volunteering and travelling.
💬 Contribute
Read the following prompt then add your contribution in the box below. Responses from the same person are the same colour. All comments are anonymous.
Give an example of a skill you have developed through the Digital Society course. Single words or phrases are fine, although you’re welcome to provide more detail if you’d like.
The C-A-R formula for structuring examples of your skills in applications
Because of the ‘transferability’ of skills, employers often ask for examples of times when you have demonstrated the skills they require in applications and interviews. Here is our suggestion for how you can structure your examples to ensure you are clear and cover the key information:
Writing an example of a skill for a job application
Now you are familiar with examples of skills and the ‘CAR’ formula, see if you can apply your knowledge to a real job advertised by the University Careers Service. Have a look at this job advert.
💬 Contribute
Read the following prompt then add your contribution in the box below. Responses from the same person are the same colour. All comments are anonymous.
- Read the job advert carefully and note the key skills and qualities the recruiter is looking for.
- Of the skills required, choose one that you think you demonstrated during the Digital Society course or in other areas of your life.
- Write your example (evidence) of a specific situation in which you demonstrated this skill, using the CAR formula described above.
5. The Digital Skills Pathway — University of Manchester
You will find it useful to access The Digital Pathway on CareerConnect (the Careers Service’s platform for jobs, events and appointments) which enables you to review and develop your digital skills.
We have looked at how the job market is changing, so it’s important that you find out more about your own digital skillset, understand how these skills are assessed in recruitment and how you can demonstrate your own digital talents. You are more digitally capable than you think.
Access the Digital Pathway and develop your Digital Skills:
- Log on to CareerConnect at www.careerconnect.manchester.ac.uk using your university log-in. If this is the first time you are using CareerConnect, you can find out more about it at: https://www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/services/aboutcareerconnect/
- Click on Pathways and look for the Digital Pathway.
- We recommend that you work through the three sections and in particular take the JISC Digital Capability Tool Questionnaire that is available for University of Manchester students. It highlights all the things you can do at Manchester to boost your digital skillset, including free training and support.
Take the broader Skills Audit and develop your Skills Profile:
Within CareerConnect, you can also access our Skills Development Toolkit including the Skills Audit. This is a self-reflection questionnaire about your digital skills, alongside your other transferable skills such as leadership, teamwork and initiative. Uncover your unique skills profile and find out how you can develop graduate skills at Manchester through our other Pathways.
6. Summary
The world of work is changing as technology starts to automate more and more manual tasks across a wide range of sectors. It’s fair to say that many employers and employees are struggling to keep up with the pace of change, and are finding it difficult to address the challenges posed by AI, automation and technology.
What can we as individuals do to future-proof our jobs and the skills that will be required? How will technology affect the future of recruitment?
Those companies and individuals that rise to the challenges posed by changing technology now will be better placed to take advantage of these changes in the future. We hope this Digital Society course has opened your eyes to the challenges and opportunities both today and moving forward into our digital future.
