As technology continues to change how every industry performs work, there will be several periods of disruption that will cause never before seen changes and have drastic effects on the overall workforce. Identifying these disruptions before they occur can help any person or company adapt to future changes and come out on top.
Most of the disruptions technology is poised to cause aren’t widespread industry changes, but rather small changes that will have a domino effect on the rest of the industry. To that end, predicting every single one of those disruptions is nearly impossible, but spotting the general trends is just as helpful.
New Skills Will be Required
The skills required by employees have been based on traditional jobs for a number of years. In the future, however, the skills that employees will need are going to be based far more on technology. Over the course of the last decade, sneak peeks at which skills will be prominent have become apparent, but they are just the tip of the iceberg.
For perspective, knowledge of the various programming languages is becoming far more valuable than ever before. Entire jobs have emerged based around this skill and have become some of the most lucrative career choices available today.
Programming and coding skills are just the tip of the iceberg, however, and there is a slew of tech skills that are set to emerge in incumbent industries as the workforce continues to be disrupted by this change. Achieving programming knowledge can be done using highly rated coding bootcamps that are often completely online. Regardless of the specific industry, certain tech skills will be transferable to every job function as certain technologies are used in every industry. An example of this change is the now widespread use of computers in industries around the world and the computer skills that come with it.
The Education of Employees Will Adapt
As the skills required by employees in industries around the world change, the methods by which they are educated will change drastically as well. To that end, trade school attendance has risen over the years and become far more respected by industry leaders across the world.
Unlike traditional education, top-rated trade schools, such as General Assembly, offer specialized courses in specific fields that train students to enter careers ranging from data science to UX design. Regardless of the chosen path, this form of education gives students industry mentors and field experience before they even land a job.
Additionally, the education has online options which means anyone from anywhere in the world can apply and learn the information needed to launch a tech career. This will create a far more diverse workforce in all industries, as well as result in highly skilled tech workers who will continue to convert incumbent industries into tech-dominated workspaces.
New Salaries for New Career Paths
An interesting effect of the disruption tech is causing will be the change in salaries as new careers begin to emerge. For perspective, a current programmer’s salary sits at just about $85,000. However, as the market becomes saturated with coders and programmers, this salary may actually drop.
On the other side of that coin, new career paths will emerge within industries that use programming and offer higher salaries given that the job tasks will be more complex. This will occur with a large number of existing tech skills, as well as the tech skills that are yet to emerge. While salaries are not going to skyrocket for tech workers, they are certainly going to increase in some markets as the number of valuable tech employees with unique skills continues to rise.
Conclusion
As mentioned, it’s impossible to predict every single change that technology will have on incumbent industries. Despite this, it is still extremely important to understand the potential changes that technology may cause in order to get ahead of them. Doing so will allow you to better adapt to the future and cohesively change your business models to match the coming trends. There will be no industry untouched by technology and the changes it brings with it. The only debate is how long it will be before technology becomes widespread in those industries.
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