Had I written this article a couple of decades ago, I would have probably used a bunch of full scape papers and scribbled with a fountain pen or at the most used a typewriter, not my laptop on the go. Thanks to many technological developments, today we have instant access to such life changing tools and are able to share information with the audience in seconds.
Today every other person carries a smartphone, that not only recognizes your voice and the likes of ‘Siri’ deliver a whole lot of information without a touch, but also organize your work appointments and send messages for you. The world around us is changing dramatically and it is difficult to keep pace. This is drastically affecting our lives and workplaces. Globalization, drones, driverless cars, 3D printing, robots, artificial intelligence and so on…. it is becoming increasingly difficult to understand and be prepared for these changes.
The future of work is likely to be completely different to what we have or understand today. There is no dearth of opportunity but we also need to prepare New Zealanders for a future where technological disruption and robotics will replace many jobs. In Australia 40% of the jobs are at risk of disappearing in 10-15 years due to computerization and automation. Who would have imagined few years ago that the biggest taxi company in the world doesn’t own even a single taxi? One of the cleaning companies at Auckland Airport is already using robots for cleaning jobs.
Labour Party is currently carrying out investigation on "future of work" and holding a two year Future of Work Commission to look at these challenges and opportunities, in order to design the policies to deal with them and prepare Kiwis for a rapidly changing workplace, work practices, practical education and skills.
The Future of Work Commission is the Labour Party’s brainchild in taking the lead for shaping a fair and prosperous country. The Commission will focus on five core themes critical to ensuring New Zealand takes the opportunities presented by the rapid changes in working life. The five work streams are: technology, security of work and income, education and training, Maori and Pasifika, and economic development and sustainability.
How do we create an economy that provides opportunities and jobs for all? That’s the challenge we face. An important part of the Commission is to hear from business people, academics, workers and people from across our community. These are critical areas to get right to ensure that in the coming decades we have decent work with higher wages for all New Zealanders. We need to answer questions like, are our students leaving school with the skills they need to make it in the modern world and the readiness to retrain as new jobs in emerging sectors arise? Is our education system too focused on subjects rather than the emerging skills and knowledge our young people need? Are our students leaving school with the skills they need to make it in the modern world and the readiness to retrain as new jobs in emerging sectors arise? We also need to consider issues like how we remove roadblocks to innovation so businesses have the opportunities to adopt new sustainable growth models, and how to increase research and development.
Chair of the Commission and Labour Finance spokesperson Grant Robertson has launched the listening-exercise for the Commission to hear from all of you about your work, what it means to you and how the changes to the workplace could affect you. Future of work seminars will be conducted nationwide. You can also read the Future of Work discussion papers and provide feedback, by visiting the futureofwork.nz website or contact the writer.
Sunny Kaushal is one of the senior activists and an active member in Kiwi Indian community. He was the Labour Party Candidate in General Election 2011 and 2014.
A seminar in 'future of work' series was recently conducted on August 29 at Western Springs Community Hall which received great response from all. Around 70 people from the ethnic communities including some parliamentarians attended the informative session about the future of work. Labour Party leader Andrew Little, MP Phill Goff, MP Grant Robertson, Labour President Nigel Haworth welcomed the audience.
MP and Labour Party leader Andrew Little said that talking about the future of work in the world of technology and science “is a really important and defining issue for the party and us as a country.”
Grant Robertson’s presentation on The Future of Work put forward various innovative ideas to find alternative ways to keep going, the human work culture to ensure the financial safety in the future given the current environment.
Professor Edwina Pio, Professor of Diversity from AUT gave a presentation on immigration and inclusion with specific reference to ethnic communities. Honey Rasalan from Migrant action trust also raised issues related to migrants and job search.