The changing nature of work - Uncertainty the only certainty

In the next few weeks, tens of thousands of young Irish people, and millions more around the world, will take their next step towards becoming educated, employable citizens, when they begin their third-level education.

It seems almost cruel, at that moment of hope and celebration, to sound a note of caution, to wonder if the path many of these freshmen choose still leads to its imagined destination.

However, those questions can hardly be ignored. The Davos economic forum predicted, yesterday, that more than half of all work will be automated by 2025.

That report estimates that machines will be responsible for 52% of labour within seven years, up from 29% today. By 2022, the report says, roughly 75m jobs will be lost, but that could be more than offset by the creation of 133m.

This has implications far beyond the labour market — especially as politicians who are less than supportive of the old, society-sustaining social contract hold such sway.

If we reach 2025 in the grip of the recession that so many economic soothsayers predict, then we will indeed face a perfect storm.

Just as is the case with climate change — head, sand, etc — we rely on human imagination and resilience so we might muddle through.

One thing, however, seems certain in this great flux. The students who begin college this autumn will face a very different world when they graduate.

Let’s educate them, and today’s workers, too, for that, whatever it may be.