About
About this project
The aims of the project
100 Jobs of the Future is a research project that aims to look at the future of work in an increasingly technologically-driven society. We investigated:
- major trends and issues associated with major drivers of change – technological disruption, scientific innovation, climate change, globalisation, and population changes;
- the changes in work that will occur in key industries and domains;
- the jobs that will emerge in the future as a result of these changes; and
- the skills and interests that are needed for these jobs.
Having identified 100 jobs that represent key work futures in major domains and industries, we have designed a ‘job explorer tool’ called the Future Job Quiz, to help young people think about work futures, and how their aptitudes, career interests and skills might lead them towards these jobs.
The project design
- First, we looked at the research and writing around work futures – major reports, research papers, books by futurologists - to identify major trends and the implications of these for work in the next few decades.
- Next, from this review we identified key domains such as agriculture, health, and games which are changing rapidly, and selected 11 experts familiar with cutting edge developments in these domains, who could tell us about trends, and future jobs.
- We interviewed these experts, and from this constructed a picture of what future work would look like generally, and identified, using their testimony accompanied by more web-based exploration, 100 jobs that represent a picture of future work in these key domains.
- Finally, drawing on the research report, we constructed the ‘job explorer tool’ to help young people think about future work, and how their aptitudes, career interests and skills might lead to interesting ‘jobs of the future’.
Meet the experts
Key findings
The world of work will change dramatically in the next few decades. Even now, jobs are changing at a fast rate as machines and big data change the way we work and interact with each other.
An aging population, medical technologies, and disrupted workplaces will change people’s life spans and career patterns. Climate change, population pressures and technologised lifestyles will throw up major challenges for sustainability. New technologies and new materials will change agricultural practice, transport, engineering, and industry and business practices.
This will all lead to major work disruptions, but open up possibilities for those with the skills and interests to match. Increasingly, jobs will involve humans working with machines, which means that future work will require people with technical/digital skills and those who can work at the interface between machines and people. We will have new jobs, and the jobs that exist now will change to include new technological and communication processes.
Many, but not all, of the 100 jobs of the future will require scientific and technological and digital skills. Many also require people skills, creativity and imagination, and the ability to work across domains and to learn and adapt.
How we constructed the Jobs Explorer tool
- To construct the Jobs Explorer tool, we first identified the aptitudes, skill sets and career interests that matched each job. For these, we used the ‘Holland code’ typology which has been well researched and tested, identifying 6 ‘codes’ to characterise peoples’ major career interests.
- Next, we designed an online quiz that identifies a code profile for each participant – Practical, Investigative, Social, Creative, Enterprising, Organised.
- We divided the 100 jobs into 19 areas of work, such as ‘advanced farming and food production’, ‘leisure and entertainment’, or ‘digital networks’.
- Together with a preference for these areas of work, the coding enables us to identify future jobs matched to the responses.
- Finally, we included in the advice for young people to further explore possible job futures linked to their profile, and the future jobs.