“Coaching, Caring and Connecting”

Cognizant is a world leading professional services company based in the USA. It focuses on helping businesses innovate for the digital age, and has produced a report describing the characteristics of 21 new job roles.

Three key themes emerge from the analysis of new job roles – Coaching, Caring and Connecting. All of these roles involve significant human input, even if technology is central to their function. There is also significant overlap with the skills of “third space thinking”.

Key takeaways from the report include:

• Work has always changed. Secretarial roles, for example, were commonplace until recently.

• Many current jobs would not be missed because they are dangerous or disliked. Think about mining or rubbish collection for example.

• Machines nearly always need people to engage with them in order to be effective.

• People will always come up with new ideas and sources of work.

• Technology may change the focus of many jobs but will improve their quality. Think about the potential to improve healthcare and education for example. It will also create new problems for humans to solve!

Do you have any examples to share where you have seen any of these developments already happening? What specific skills do they require?

For more information:

Watch the overview video titled “21 Jobs of the Future” (6 minutes)

Read the report summary and infographic below the video and check out the interactive feature of the proposed 21 new job roles.