SKILLS, JOBS AND FUTURE OF WORK

Work in the globalized environment is becoming more flexible. Electronic Information systems are permeating the world of work and leading to the development of Networks, and new organizational structures are emerging.
Traditional trades and occupations are becoming less important as a result of the spread of information technology. Demarcation lines are blurring, distinctions becoming less clear, duties and responsibilities are increasingly overlapping. Different skills are being combined to form new work areas. Information brokers, info – artists, and advertising and media copy producers are jobs of the future. In the coming years, new types of jobs will primarily emerge as a result of greater differentiation. New skills and qualifications are in demand. Life long learning and on the job training are to become increasingly important.
The above development is a challenge to schools and institutions of Higher learning. For the Uganda man power development, it is absolutely important that those in charge of the schools/institutions try their level best to procure reading materials that can keep their students abreast with the developments in the world of work.
This challenge is what the Universities in Uganda are faced with. They ought to have the capacity to train manpower that is suitable to the work situation today and tomorrow, not yesterday! The Academic Registrara ought to be well informed so that they can ensure that properly tailored courses are downloaded in their curriculum scope so that students trained don’t waste time in fields that have been scrapped, but such areas that are promising given the global trends.
Work is increasingly being measured in terms of performance. In an environment characterized by information and communication technologies and flexible organizational structures, employees are being remunerated less on the basis of their working hours, industriousness or loyalty, and more and more on the basis of results (this is the trend in the developed world). Information technology is facilitating the assessment of output rather than input.
Freelance forms of employment are on the increase; traditional industrial employment relationships are on the decline. Permanent, unlimited full-time employment is now becoming a thing of the past. The increasing influence of the information technology and the dynamic development of the service sector have created new forms of employment which includes part –time work, tele – working, side – line employment, contract work and temporary employment.
Growing competition is to lead to an increase in new forms of employment. Experts are agreed that new jobs will be created primarily in the service sector. The new forms of employment will be network – oriented and order – related. For the employees, the above scenario means that their regard to location, duration, remuneration and occupation.
The trend towards higher qualifications is to continue. This is already reflected on the job market in Uganda where graduates with the 2nd degree are taking on the jobs that would have required the first degree. So, what this implies is that the first degree in a number of courses is necessary but not sufficient to earn the holder a job.
The ability to use information technology is going to become a major requirement across the board. It is against this development that secondary schools with resources should endeavour to acquire computers and teach computer skills to their students now that it is absolutely important that one has to be computer to live to the challenges of today’s world of work.
It is going to become increasingly important for employees in middle management to adapt their skills to new requirements because more and more functions are being transferred to machines and more intelligent networks.
Regarding the income opportunities, these are becoming wider and the gap between the lowest and the highest incomes is increasing.