by Levi J Parsons
SYDNEY, July 24 (Xinhua) -- In order to give young people a better idea of what the future holds, a team of experts at two Australian universities have devised the 100 Jobs of the Future List, exploring a strange new world with employment options such as cyborg psychology, genetics coaching, quantum computer programming and cricket farming.
Commissioned by Ford Australia, the Deakin and Griffith University project aims to give workers of tomorrow better insight into what industries they might end up in.
"As a teacher, I think a lot of what we do is preparing young people for the next stages in life," Deakin University education expert Peta White, who was involved in the research, told Xinhua on Wednesday.
"And that's changing a lot, so it can be a bit unsettling for young people to know where they should be diverting or investing their energy in terms of learning and developing skills," White said.
As part of the project, students who might be wondering what job path to follow can take the 100 Jobs of the Future Quiz online, to find out what kind of forthcoming work might best suit their interest, skills and aptitude.
Although the list does include an extensive range of technologically advanced digital jobs, such as a smart dust wrangler, a machine-learning developer, a robot ethicist and even a terraforming microbiologist, White said, "when you review the entire list, you're probably going to be a bit surprised about how people-focused they are."
"A lot of people think that robots are going to take over, but in actual fact robots are going to be designed to support and take up the jobs that really are mundane and repetitive," White said.
"Our report reveals that the big opportunities come about with the idea of supporting people. Particularly as our generations stay around for longer and have more requirements and medical needs, the usefulness and the application of technology becomes really valuable," she said.
One such future job in this area that made the list is a nostalgist - a role that would help older generations find comfort in the past.
"I love the idea of the nostalgist because that really focuses on how our aging populations are going to require support and services to help us all feel fulfilled and useful," White said.
"The privileging of memory and the use of technology to engage with our reflections, I think is just a really lovely idea," she added.
Undergoing a detailed literature review, the collaboration explored an exhaustive amount of existing works on the subject and then looked to interview a wide range of experts in a variety of different fields.
"We worked with futurists, but we were also exploring thought experts, and thinking from the perspective of organizations like Google, eBay and even farmers' federations," White said.
With food security and broad-acre farming destined to become a major area of focus in coming years, perhaps the strangest and most surprising job title on the list is the cricket farmer.
"My favourite is the cricket farmer mostly because I'm a farmer's daughter. The idea of using crickets for an alternative protein source is really exciting," White said.
"Other areas that I'm excited about is the extinction and conservation geneticists. The concept of being able to roll back extinction, we should all feel pretty excited about that," she added.
