This article originally appeared on Vulcan Post.
There are tons of speculations about what the future will be like, especially for job seekers. Many people are becoming worried about what jobs will look like with advancements in technology and environmental changes in the world.
NTUC Secretary-General (SG) Lim Swee Say has said that anticipating the future of service and embracing new technologies is critical to future business success. With the tight manpower situation in Singapore, this has become more relevant.
The Labour Movement in Singapore has announced that they are pulling out all the stops to equip all workers with Future-Ready skills so that businesses can achieve technological and process breakthroughs even with a lean workforce.
The Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) intends help incubate businesses with new breakthroughs and ideas, and provide support to facilitate training for workers at every level to gain newer and better skills. Companies are also able to apply for grants like the Inclusive Growth Programme to keep their technology and employees’ skills up with the times.
It really is about learning new SkillsFuture, deepening the skills and yes, all about mastery. There are more than just academic degrees to deepen one’s skills and knowledge. Sometimes, the vocational hands-on type of learning trumps above the academic degrees.
If you want to get a job of the future, then strap on your shiny self-lacing shoes and put on your self-drying jacket, because here are the 10 coolest jobs of the future that you know you’d definitely want.
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Medical Roboticist
Because in the future, sensitive medical operations will best be done by robots. Robot surgeries – done by four-armed robots – are fast picking up speed in the medical world, with miniature surgical instruments on three of these arms providing a maximum range of motion and precision. The fourth arm even has a high definition 3D camera that can guide the surgeon through the procedure, making sure that there is no chance of error.
A medical roboticist would need to have thorough knowledge of the human body, as well as a clear understanding of how to operate high-tech machinery to complete their tasks.
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Custom Implant Organ Designer
Each day, an average of 18 people die waiting for transplants that can’t take place because of a shortage of donated organs. In 2014, however, the first full organ was grown inside an animal, showing that it is possible to grow a human organ.
Thanks to this advancement, it is likely that grown organs will be our main source of transplant materials, even allowing us to design them to ensure 100% effectiveness. A custom designer for implant organs would play a large role in the medical field, armed with a knowledge of genetics and an understanding of the human body.
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Cyber Security Specialist
2014 was not a good year for Cyber Security: with several high-profile security breaches like that of JP Morgan Chase, Ebay, Snapchat, and Internet vulnerabilities like Shellshock and Heartbleed, we need more cyber-talents on board to fight the threats that hold up the world we’ve come to know and love – online.
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Security Specialist
While we have security officers today, the advancement of technology will make a new breed of security personnel that is faster and more effective. Security guards will no longer need to pull long hours in a guardhouse, as they’ll be equipped with the best technology to assist them. Robots as muscle, a bird’s eye view through advanced CCTVs, and perhaps a Segway-like vehicle to ferry them to trespassers and perpetrators – Security Specialists would have access to all these to make the city we live in a safer place.
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Space Tour Guide
While we don’t yet have any hovercars, space travel – and thus space tourism – seems like it is drawing closer and closer. Travelling to the moon may equate a business trip, while a visit to the nearest space station may be just another family holiday. Bringing people around requires strong people skills, and a great knowledge of the universe and beyond. Also, knowledge about basic safety procedures (such as the stuff Air Stewardesses have to deal with) would probably be useful.
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Simulation Engineer
Think bigger than Oculus Rift – virtual reality is at its prime and we need someone to create alternate worlds for us, either to help with job trainings or to help us escape doing our homework. This would require some sick technical skills and a whole lot of imagination.
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Construction Specialist
While Jetsons-like houses aren’t quite the way we’d want our houses to be, building construction in the future will go through quite a bit of changes. With access to the newest innovations like 3D modeling and printing, as well as advanced robotics, construction specialists in charge of building the world we live in will be equipped to go bigger and better!
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Forecasters of the Future
As the world evolves to understand itself in new ways, the centre of each progression will definitely be data. And data analysts will be the omniscient leaders of change, reading the charts to tell people what the present and future holds. Will stock prices plummet? Will we run out of fresh produce? Only the data knows.
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Genetic Counselor
It’s been a while since we first heard the term “designer-babies”, but it isn’t gone just yet. Thanks to genomics, it is possible to predict genetic abnormalities that may threaten a child’s health or way of living. While doctors are able to churn out the details, genetic counselors will be needed to help future parents make the best choices for their children – choices that they are comfortable with as well. It is also an existing job, with about 2,000 counselors recognized by the American Board of Genetic Counseling, according to MSNBC.
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Transportation Engineer
Where are our hoverboards? Self-driven cars? Floating rocket-ship cars? Popular culture depicting futuristic transport has promised so much, and yet delivered so little. But we still have faith – and transportation engineers have to be around to make sure it happens.
