Study says future of work is still human in Australia

A study conducted by Swinburne University’s Centre for the New Workforce concluded that emotional abilities are the most important skills to face the digital disruption in the labour market. The university surveyed 1000 Australian workers from different sectors, including CEOs and bus drivers, to understand how they expect to have success in the future of work. The research disclosed two different trends: first, the more an industry is disrupted by technology, the more its workers value social competencies that are uniquely human and less available to being displaced by technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). Conversely, workers in the least technologically intensive industries, like mining and construction, value traditional expertise three times more than social competencies. Second, regardless of education or income level, most respondents  chose ‘learning on the job’ as the best option to prepare for digital changes. Researchers concluded that the second trend is to be expected because the workplace is where disruption is taking place and the disconnect between working and learning should be reversed.