The employment landscape today is very different from the one our grandparents, or even our parents were used to. With the rapid development of technology, the world of work that our children will encounter could see an even greater change.

Although there’s no crystal ball that’ll show you exactly what the future of work will look like for your child, here are six key elements you should know about that are already shaping what the employment landscape will look like 20 years from now:

Evolving population

Canada’s population is aging and will continue to over the coming decades. This means there will also be proportionally fewer people of working age, and they’ll rely on automation solutions to keep up productivity. Jobs to meet the needs of our aging population and those that aid the automation of industrial processes will be in demand.

Increased diversity

As younger immigrants are invited to work in Canada to help counteract its aging population, our workplaces will become more diverse, increasing the need for people who can communicate in more languages and embrace cultural diversity. Areas such as legal services, policy development and law enforcement are likely to grow to help accommodate these new Canadians.

Scientific innovations

Science has reached new and astonishing heights over the past twenty years, and the rate of acceleration in technological advancement means that over the next twenty years, this could create jobs in areas that don’t even exist today! Industries like health, electronics and automobiles will be at the cutting edge of these changes.

Technology and data

People in every industry and profession will come to rely more and more on technology and automation to work efficiently. Of course this will bring with it the need for people who can manage and make sense of the data that technology will produce. Data scientists were almost unheard of just ten years ago. Now they are one of the hottest careers around.

Customization

If personalization is the buzzword today in consumer goods, it’ll be a mainstream expectation tomorrow for most services and products. People with expertise in their fields will create increasingly individualized solutions; for example, in healthcare, professionals will offer customized nutrition, or special health tracking in sportswear.

Sustainable resources

Climate change is no secret. Many of us are already looking at ways to help save our planet by using eco-friendly resources. Canada is an energy leader, so the future of work here is directly tied to the renewable energy market: generating power from the sun, wind and water.

These employment trends are already becoming more apparent – others will emerge. One thing that many of these professions have in common is that they require highly-skilled and highly-specialized training. Twenty years from now, no matter which path your child chooses, a post-secondary education will give them an edge in this highly evolved and technical landscape.

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