Anticipating better jobs in future

In the past three months alone, I have spoken to twelve different groups about the future of work. 

It wasn’t my choice but somehow each group had an interest in this topic and somehow, the subject kept rearing its head. 

What I have since noted is that people are anticipating better jobs in the future.

On social media, we’ve had debates about losing jobs, and the platforms are replete with testimonies from those who have already unfortunately lost their jobs. 

There is serious change going on, and it comes with both pain but also with blessings. It also depends on how one takes in the reality of suddenly becoming jobless.

MOVE ON

Any job will come to an end at some point whether we like it or not. My philosophy has always been to move on and do what it takes to put the food on the table. 

It always helps to live within your own means and always have a plan B at all times even when holding what you might perceive as the most secure job.

In the not too distant future, and as the 4th industrial revolution intensifies, technology will reorganise most of the jobs that we do today. 

Some people will forever become unemployed but at the same time many will begin doing new jobs that they never anticipated in their lives.  

The new type of jobs will require new skill sets - both higher-level, specialised skills to meet new industry standards as well as non-cognitive 21st century competencies in critical thinking, creativity and communication. 

As with the introduction of other technologies in earlier periods, these new technologies are likely to dislocate some workers especially those in routine jobs which could easily be automated and therefore hurting those unable to reskill and upskill. 

However, the net effect will be positive.

Digital technologies, in particular, are driving transformations across many industries such as banking, agriculture, transportation, and retail.  Many of these sectors currently employ large numbers of people in the informal sector. 

These transformations require a range of skills from basic digital skills and literacy for users to advanced digital skills for those who can help to create new applications and business. 

BETTER DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE

The government of Kenya has already initiated a free digital literacy programme throughout the country.

The government is also rapidly digitising in order to transform the country into a digital economy. Even the worst critic of government agrees that digitisation has made things better, improved the country’s indices in terms of doing business and we can transact with government from the comfort of our homes.

Improved digital infrastructure has attracted investors, with new business models and creating low-end jobs. Virtually every major digital platform is here bringing the joy of convenience but also the pain of using our data without consent.  

The changes tell us to develop new human resource capacities such as cybersecurity experts, data analysts, machine learning engineers, research scientist, big data engineers/architects and business intelligence developers.
 
To rapidly develop such capacities, the mind-set of our education policy makers has to change and so are the universities to shift their focus from theory to more applied sciences. We have no choice in this especially now that the government is committed to competence-based curriculum that is currently being implemented in primary schools. 

Without preparing to take up such jobs in the days to come, many of us will be confined to menial jobs that platforms offer. The emergence of the digital economy requires updating regulatory frameworks to address the mischief of new platforms that come with complex business models.

There are also opportunities in mid-level jobs. If we get it right in human resource capacity development, it could spark millions of jobs not just within the country but also attract global jobs into the country.  

In such a strategy, opportunities for entrepreneurship in apps development are abundant. There are many jobs in digital marketing, digital graphic design, desktop publishing, research, data analytics, business process outsourcing. 
 
The challenge is that output per a person employed in the region compares poorly to North and Southern Africa.  

It is an area Africa must generally pay attention to. Output per person or labour efficiency and productivity is something that should be part of our DNA. It can be improved by always examining per unit costs of inputs and always adjusting the firm’s inputs accordingly. 

Our competitiveness is not the abundant of workers but our productivity.

The digital economy is taking shape in Africa. A January 2020 Brookings Institution article, The Fourth Industrial Revolution and digitisation will transform Africa into a global powerhouse, by Njuguna Ndung’u and Landry Signé notes that mobile technologies and services have generated 1.7 million direct jobs (both formal and informal), contributed to $144 billion of economic value (8.5 percent of the GDP of sub-Saharan Africa), and contributed $15.6 billion to the public sector through taxation.

In Eastern Africa for example, a few countries within the region have improved their competitiveness in such areas as higher education and training, labour market efficiency, technological readiness and innovativeness among other interventions. 

We need to pay more attention along the lines of competitiveness if indeed Africa is to play a key role in the future of work.

There is a high correlation between country competitiveness and participation in the digital economy as well as export of ICT services.  

The global competitiveness report 2019 also ranks Mauritius (52nd) top among the African and EA countries. Other countries from the region include Kenya (95th), Rwanda (100th), Uganda (115th), Tanzania (117th) and Ethiopia (126th) out of 141 countries in the world. Kenya and Mauritius also happen to the top African countries in ICT exports.

As of 2019, there were 634 tech clusters in Africa of which 113 were in East Africa with most (50) of them in Kenya. The Partech Africa Report of 2019, which covers equity deals in tech and digital spaces with funding rounds higher than $200,000, says, 234 African tech startups raised $2.02 billion in 2019. Nigeria took the lion’s share ($747 million) followed by Kenya ($564 million), Egypt ($211), Rwanda ($126) and South Africa ($205). 

There is real opportunity for Africa to play a key role in the future of work but a lot has to change for the continent to effectively participate in the emerging industrial revolution that underpins the future.

The writer is a professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Nairobi’s School of Business.