Doctoral Articles

The new workplace and the skills needed for 2020

Scott Rostohar, UOPX Writer Network

| May 31, 2011

Six times this year, the Chronicle of Higher Education and University of Phoenix will team up to offer webinars to the nation's education leaders. During the most recent webinar, two institutes that research and analyze future workplace demands, the Apollo Research Institute and Institute for the Future, presented the report "Future Work Skills: 2020."

During the webinar, participants learned about future trends and the skills needed to be prepared. By analyzing current trends and societal factors, researchers predicted the skill sets that could end up defining jobs of the future.

Current evolving trends

In the report, researchers uncovered the disruptive drivers that are expected to change the workforce, including:

Extreme longevity. With better health care, healthy aging will change our approach to career, family life and education. More employees will work beyond age 65 in order to have adequate resources for retirement.
Rise of smart machines and systems. As automated systems continue to replace humans in completing repetitive tasks, the focus will shift to using creative and critical thinking skills that cannot be accomplished by machines.
Computational world. The world we live in and the digital world we use are converging. Because of augmented reality and other technological innovations, we’re able to manipulate how we experience the real world and how the real world affects digital technologies.
New media ecology. Text-based media is becoming more visual and virtual networks are integrating seamlessly into your environment and life.
Superstructed organizations. Social media, game design, happiness psychology technologies and neuroscience are beginning to drive how social, economic and political organizations work. As these technologies converge, companies must have employees that can utilize these technologies.
Globally connected world. As the world becomes increasingly connected, geographic borders are being torn down. This is leading to greater opportunities for diverse workforces who work remotely and are members of teams located around the world.

Notice how each trend above is a direct result of technology. And because technology changes and evolves at a break-neck pace, continuing to develop skills needed to keep pace will become increasingly difficult. But, if you remain cognizant of the impact these changes have on your industry and commit to lifelong learning, you could find yourself in high demand before 2020.

Future skills

In addition to describing the trends that will shape your workplace, researchers linked the trends to particular skills that could prepare you for 2020. These 10 proficiencies and abilities include:

Sense-making – ability to determine the deeper meaning or significance of what is being expressed.
Social intelligence – connecting to others in a deep and direct way, to sense and stimulate reactions and desired interactions.
Novel and adaptive thinking – proficiency at thinking and coming up with solutions and responses beyond that which is rote or rule based.
Cross-cultural competency – operating in different cultural settings.
Computational thinking – ability to translate vast amounts of data into abstract concepts, and to understand data-based reasoning.
New media literacy – ability to critically assess and develop content that uses new media forms, and to leverage these media for persuasive communication.
Transdisciplinarity – literacy in and ability to understand concepts across multiple disciplines.
Design mindset – ability to represent and develop tasks and work processes for desired outcomes.
Cognitive load management – ability to discriminate and filter information for importance, and to understand how to maximize cognitive functioning using a variety of tools and techniques.
Virtual collaboration – ability to work productively, drive engagement and demonstrate presence as a member of a virtual team.

As you begin to explore the skills that will prepare you for the future workplace, you’ll see how each skill develops your abilities and enhances your talent to handle multiple trends. By adapting these skills to a particular industry, you'll also broaden your understanding of your industry.

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The goal, according to business leaders who were a part of the webinar, is to have a broad understanding of what each person in your company does, especially as it relates to technology. Then, use that understanding to collaborate and enhance the work that you do.

For more information, download the full "Future Work Skills: 2020" report or hear the researchers and business leaders discuss the findings through the complimentary webinar.