Young job-seekers should have the skills in demand in the market. Here lies the importance of soft skills and vocational training that help build their employability.
For employers, anyone who has multiple skills or is capable of performing more tasks than he’s paid for has the edge over others. Having a desire for updates in any sector makes the candidates even more desirable.
Within the framework of these basic requirements, are the Omani youth ready for the challenges of the job market?
The latest issue of ‘Scientific Insights’ magazine published by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MoHERI), discussed the scope of future jobs with the requirements of specialists and academics. “One-third of new jobs created in the United States in the past 25 years were types that did not exist, or barely existed, in areas including IT development, hardware manufacturing, app creation and IT systems management’’, it stated
A report based on ‘Technology, jobs and the future of work’ issued by McKinsey Global Institute (2017), states the world is constantly changing and affecting job requirements.
These reports offer a background for questions as to how they affect future jobs? How can various modern technologies be adapted to support a stable base in the labour market and create sustainable job opportunities? How can the Sultanate of Oman take advantage of these developments to formulate evident job sustainability?
Khalfan bin Saif al Touqi, an economist and academician, says we should be prepared for what the future holds as it moves rapidly with all the various developments.
“The transformation for future jobs will be quick and within months, and it will be very, very fast. This is evident when dealing with the current generation whose thinking process is completely different due to their exposure to various technical developments’’, he said.
According to him, the world has evolved a lot from the past when people dreamed of becoming engineers, pilots or doctors. Now our youth aspire to become YouTubers or bloggers because the way people think and live their lives has changed drastically.
It is expected that by 2025, 10 per cent of the clothes that people wear will be connected to the Internet of Things, and the robot will be an active member of the boards of directors of institutions. Liver transplants made from 3D printers is even expected to be successfully conducted.
“Future will be very different from what we live in today, and it is highly important to prepare the future generation for the jobs of the future’’, opines Dr Zahra bint Rashid al Rawahiyah, CEO of Artificial Intelligence Academy.
“Future jobs will require more investment in building qualified human capabilities, capable of creativity and innovation and able to adapt to the changing nature of business. Therefore, companies and institutions must boost innovation and make it their top priority for such matters’’, Dr Zahra asserted.
There are several social, economic and technological factors that will contribute to changing the future of jobs in the short-term, and the importance of each of these factors has been determined, say the market experts.
They say that digital technologies are developing at an astonishing speed and rapidly transforming work’s nature. The challenge for countries worldwide is to adapt to the new digital economy, ensuring that each new generation is empowered to seize the opportunities it creates.
current plans
The Sultanate of Oman is ready for what is to come. There are programmes that some parties are currently carrying out, and there are programmes that need to be worked on. There needs to be cooperation between them to review the current plans to enrich the visions of what they must do, especially in the fields of technology and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. They must develop initiatives and activate all the agreements it signed with countries of the world in the areas of joint cooperation, while enriching the content in the school curricula. It must not stop but rather multiply and be present in the minds of the aspirations of the young generation because they are the future generation inside and outside the Sultanate of Oman.
Some ten jobs that the world will desperately need in the near future are programming, information security, data analysis, alternative energy, international law, 3D printing, distance education, marketing, personal consultant and financial
planner.
@kabeeryousef
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
