Jobs Of The Future

You’ve probably heard a lot about the fourth industrial revolution, but are still unsure of what it is and how it will affect you. Gugulethu Mhlungu makes sense of it all.

- Gugulethu Mhlungu

A lot has been said and written about the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). And, from a government perspective it seems to be a big focus with everyone from the president to ministers and mayors talking about it. As a result, a presidential commission of the 4IR was announced in June. It will examine what SA needs, in policy, skills, technology, to partake in the 4IR.

SO, WHAT IS IT?

Economic analyst Stuart Oakley says: “4IR is about combining the physical world with technology. It uses technology to carry out tasks that require physical and/or repetitive labour using machines that can do more complicated tasks. This is possible because robots are now able to think, listen, read and learn.” Examples of 4IR in action includes machines assembling more of a car’s body during the manufacturing process without human involvement. And, the self-driving cars such as the ones Tesla, Inc. is making that can detect road markings and other users, and make complicated decisions while being controlled on a cellphone. So, if your work duties include repetitive tasks such as manufacturing – where you pack or assemble things, or you give information such as a call centre agent, or your job can be done faster and cheaper by a machine, 4IR will impact you the most. But, a lot of the discussion has also been around 4IR involving access to the Internet and computers. At a recent conference in SA, American academic and geopolitical forecaster Dr George Friedman spoke of how SA was confusing 3IR and 4IR, and further confusing digitisation and automation. He added: “4IR has nothing to do with computers because that’s digitisation.”

THREAT OR OPPORTUNITY