In the days before the “printing press,” some 600 years ago, it would have taken human physical strength to copy one book at a time in order to spread information among people. Nowadays, knowledge is a scarce and costly resource. Humans weren’t able to construct a printing press until approximately 1440. The cost of knowledge transfer is felt across different technologies and at the grassroots level. Consequently, evolution is ongoing. Man stepped on the moon before the world had binoculars, machinery, telephones, etc. It took 600 years for the human way of life to entirely alter after all of this.
“We imagine that the world had a printing press. People used to be hired to write copies of books that everyone had to rely on and became unemployed. Or when there were steam engines, people lost enormous jobs. Having previously driven a horse, he had to have the skills to drive a steam vehicle instead. Old skills disappear and new skills come in. This reflects that technology is destroying careers all the time.”
A lecturer at Thammasat University’s Faculty of Economics, Dr. Kiatanan Luankaew utilizes an index of how much technology innovation has altered our way of life to highlight the severity of the situation we live in, where jobs are eliminated and new ones are created on a regular basis. What’s more intriguing, though, is how quickly these changes are occurring.
The state of technological advancement index
From 2000 to 2040, the world is predicted to undergo another cycle of geographic changes. As a result, the world will rotate thirty times faster than it did the 600 years it took for the changeover process to occur. Thirty times faster than previously, jobs that were formerly there will disappear.
The world used to be so stable that people could forecast future events, including the subjects and courses we would need to take. That way, it will correspond with what the labor market demands at that particular moment.
However, society is currently dealing with crisis after crisis, primarily brought on by the ups and downs of the so-called “Disruption” period, which has turned established careers into a chaotic mess. This phenomenon appears, persists, and then vanishes. It is occurring concurrently with another crisis that we are facing, the “epidemic,” which is causing these changes to occur more quickly.
“There would never be a line of people in the village for Auntie Mian, the person in the alley who sells food to order, if there was no COVID-19.” Auntie Mian won’t be aware of the Robin Hood app at all. To know these facts, it might take the grandchildren and grandchildren of Auntie Mian. However, Auntie Mian now possesses the same level of digital proficiency as members of society who are compelled to live in the digital age.
Will traditional techniques of professional preparation still be useful as the world spins faster?
Probably not in a few years, but that’s the likely answer.
K-Shaped Recovery: Tens of millions lost, yet only a small number of people made it out alive.
A permanent career is not in the cards. The skills that employers are looking for are entirely different from what they were a decade ago. For this reason, promoting career readiness in children and teens is a challenging task that gets much more complex in light of the current epidemic. The theory of economic recovery known as “K-Shaped Recovery,” or recovery in the shape of K, takes this into account.
“Economic recovery in the form of K or K-Shaped Recovery” The COVID-19 pandemic has recently seen the use of this phrase. Economists investigating the pattern of economic recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic discovered that different business sectors will fall into two categories: those that have the potential to recover successfully and others that have not yet recovered and will only worsen.
These two sets can be compared to the two upward and downward diagonal lines that form the letter K.
What exactly decides who will survive and who won’t is the question. The four facets of K-Shaped theory will help us discover the solution in the following ways:
- K-Shaped in Business
Several academics looked into the business sector approximately a year after the COVID-19 breakout and discovered that every company has an equal probability of succeeding and failing. ‘Adaptation’ is the key to a business’s survival.
“In the past, we used the term “Red Ocean,” referring to a red ocean strategy that results from company rivalry through price wars or price reductions to fight for clients, resulting in mutually fatalities.
Subsequently, it dawned on us that we have to locate the Blue Ocean, which is a previously unexplored market. I would then travel to a distant planet where I would be able to survive and there would be no competition.
Because it was hard to replicate in the corporate world at first, this idea did not last long, but technology exists in today’s environment. Artificial Intelligence (AI) makes it simple to imitate enterprises. Technology has changed the Blue Ocean. And it inspired the invention of Ocean Hopping.
A business that never stops hopping is known as “ocean hopping.” And people are going to keep on following. It is an adaptable business that operates continuously. It’s always willing to take advantage of chances and adjust to novel situations.
Simultaneously, every time a company advances, it needs to bring people with it. These businesses will simply leave these people behind and use anything else if they are unable to accompany them. These companies only consider individuals who would work well with them, and in order to be competitive, they must constantly adapt their company strategy. Thus, it’s not that type of enterprise. For the rest of our lives, we shall be in the business of selling goods. Because people are continuously pursuing them, businesses must disrupt themselves in order to exist.
It turns out that the businesses that can recover and jump to the top diagonal line of the K-shaped letters are Ocean Hopping businesses. In the world of the 4.0 era, business opportunities appear and disappear faster than before. Therefore, these businesses must have the speed to seize opportunities and continue their journey to seize new opportunities ahead.
The point is that this type of business involves very little labor as well. That’s because not everyone is ready to jump into business. When businesses select people, the labor market is directly and severely affected.
“After graduating, it is not like they accepted immediately. After graduating, you may be subject to strict evaluation. Not only by educational qualifications but also by human capital, can you go further? Moreover, is the human capital or skills that the child has flexible enough to jump into that business? Businesses will look at it this way.”
2. K-Shaped in the labor market
“People who are ready in this era are not people with degrees, but must have career flexibility and be ready to disrupt their careers at all times to pursue a business that can adapt.”
Adaptation is an important skill. Otherwise, we will enter a state where only two groups of workers will emerge as survivors.
According to Dr. Kiatanan, the first group, dubbed “Super Ducks,” are individuals who possess extensive knowledge and are aware of when to harness their potential to fortify themselves and even surpass Super Duck status in that particular field. ‘occupations Innovators’, the second group, are individuals who can develop occupations in ways that the general public cannot envision; one example would be accepting a job as a book reader and entertainer. There were a ton of people on the K-Shaped’s tail, but these two groups would end up being the survivors. Income inequality is what follows when this occurs.
3. K-Shaped in terms of income
When people have low incomes, the opposite is true of large inequality.
This group of people will be defeated by the environment. Even when they have children and grandchildren, they have less money to invest in education.
Dr. Kiatanan highlighted the question, “How can one develop lifelong learning skills?” If people in this world need to work five jobs in order to make the same amount of money. If they have to get up at 4:00 a.m. and return to work at 11:00 p.m., how are they going to manage? It’s hard enough to survive alone. It is therefore idealistic to demand that this set of people Reskill (add skills) or Upskill (increase skills).
K-Shaped “Education” is the result of solving the problem under this circumstance.
4. K-Shaped in education
There is no denying that Lifelong Learning has become a privilege for those at the top of the economy. That is because they can Lifelong Learning easily, with a lower cost and a larger budget for learning. It turns out that K-Shaped is even wider.
“Those who are not ready will be continually pushed down. Their human capital will deteriorate faster because the labor market does not want it. We imagine what they will do if they lose their job. Many people become riders. If we ask if being a rider leaves human capital to pursue other careers, the answer is almost none.”
These individuals will eventually have no choice but to labor in positions that do not contribute to the continuous development of human capital in order to survive. Carrying on over an extended period is challenging. Both money and time are scarce for those. Hence, it becomes harder to raise the next generation of kids in the household and forces the kids to burden the school. The school isn’t always ready, though, in parallel.
“Education ought to be community- or area-based, as we like to say. However, there will be less learning resources available to the community if it is below K. Everybody in the neighborhood is attempting to live. Less social capital exists. Once everyone is gathered, we will arrange for youngsters to begin studying. Having more vital things to do kept them from arriving in time. More seriously, the inequality exists.”
Because of this, the idea of career readiness is predicated on a difficult issue. Although it is not simple, finding a solution is crucial. It’s a form of adolescent and kid preparation, according to Dr. Kiatanan. It shouldn’t be predicated on the notion of pursuing a specific career. But it needs to be ready so that every kid can adjust to the realities of the job market. It is prepared to take advantage of any opportunity for a career during that period. Then, even if that chance or career vanishes, they can carry on.
