Changing workplaces require innovative approaches to education
Infometrics is pleased to announce the release of our eagerly awaited Megatrends Report “From education to employment: Megatrends affecting NZ’s working environment ”.
The world we live in is changing and is expected to change at a greater rate over the next 20 years. In this report, Gareth Kiernan, Infometrics’ Chief Forecaster has brought together and examines several megatrends structured around the following themes:
- The economic environment in which we operate
- Demographic trends and their challenges
- The changing nature of education and training
Infometrics estimates that 31% of current jobs in the New Zealand workforce are at high risk of automation between now and 2036. These job losses will be spread relatively evenly across the country with lower-skilled jobs likely to be more heavily affected. “The government, in partnership with the tertiary education sector, has a key role to play in helping lower-skilled workers, particularly over-represented Māori and Pasifika,” says Mr Kiernan.
New jobs will be created in the likes of design and programming, mostly in the main urban centres. This outcome suggests more difficult employment and economic conditions for provincial and rural areas. These pressures will be exacerbated by the continued concentration of population growth in the “Golden Triangle” area of the upper North Island.
Necessary innovations in the tertiary education sector include a greater focus on transferable skills, rather than knowledge, and a move towards smaller courses that can fit in more easily with job and career changes throughout people’s working lives. Online-based learning is one advancement that will help achieve these goals.
More collaboration between tertiary education organisations will also allow providers to focus on the areas of learning in which they have strengths, leading to higher-quality courses and better outcomes for graduates. With the government supplying an overarching skills strategy, this approach will result in better workforce outcomes and productivity over the medium term.
At Infometrics we recognise that educators, strategists and workforce planners need information to address their future workforce needs. To view the full From education to employment: Megatrends affecting NZ’s working environment report click here.
As always, our economists are on hand to answer questions or discuss any of the issues raised in this report. Please call or email us at any time.
