Business Times reports that new research into jobs of the future has identified specialists in food production as among the crucial skills SA and other countries will need in the changing world of work. But some jobs that may become essential don’t even exist yet.
The Brics Business Council and the Food and Beverages Sectoral Education and Training Authority (FoodBev Seta) last week launched the Atlas of Emerging Jobs in the Food and Beverage Sector, which showed that equipment operational specialists, bio-nutritionists, integration software engineers and farm technicians were among the increasingly important skills in food production. Sherri Donaldson of the Brics Business Council said the atlas was a vital part of preparing the future workforce and ensuring that SA did not continue being a net importer of specialised skills. The atlas used a methodology known as skills technology foresight (STF), which was developed by a Russian business school and has been adopted by institutions such as the World Bank and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The report highlighted that “there is a trend of growing automation and digitalisation at dairy farms and factories, from robotic milking systems and biofeedback for cows to machine learning systems helping workers to make optimal decisions”. It added that sustainability would be at the heart of many of the coveted jobs of the future. Donaldson estimates that 65% of children globally entering the basic school system will be working in jobs that either do not yet exist or are not yet widely known in the global job market.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Khulekani Magubane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page