WEF Jobs of the Future Report

Table of Contents

• WEF Report Summarized

• What Educators Are Saying

• My AI Process

• Bring This To Your Class

JOBS OF THE FUTURE
Summary & Key Findings

The sources focus on the findings of the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Survey 2024, which gathered information from over 1,000 employers representing more than 14 million workers globally.

Here are some key takeaways and their relevance to Canadian high school educators:

Analytical thinking, creative thinking, and resilience are among the top core skills employers seek. 

• These skills, along with leadership and social influence, highlight the importance of adaptability and collaboration in the workplace.

• Canadian high school educators can help students develop these skills by incorporating project-based learning, problem-solving activities, and opportunities for collaboration into their curricula.

Technological literacy is becoming increasingly important.

• With skills like AI and big data, networks and cybersecurity, and programming projected to be in high demand.

• Educators can prepare students for these trends by offering courses in computer science, data analysis, and emerging technologies, and by integrating technology into existing subjects.

The survey also highlights the rising importance of environmental stewardship.

• As Canada transitions to a greener economy, students will need knowledge and skills related to sustainability and climate change mitigation.

• Incorporating environmental issues into various subjects and providing opportunities for hands-on learning in environmental science can help prepare students for this trend.

Employers are increasingly emphasizing skills over traditional credentials.

• While university degrees remain important for many roles, practical skills and experience are gaining traction.

• This suggests that Canadian high school educators should focus on providing students with a balance of academic knowledge and hands-on skills development, such as internships, apprenticeships, and vocational training.

Canadian employers emphasize a greater need for skills in AI and big data, networks and cybersecurity, and technological literacy compared to global averages.

• This underscores the importance of equipping Canadian students with strong digital skills.

Canadian employers anticipate that 67% of their workforce will require upskilling or reskilling by 2030.

• This highlights the need for ongoing learning and skills development beyond high school.

• Educators can help students understand the importance of lifelong learning and guide them toward relevant post-secondary education and training opportunities.

I’ll talk more about NotebookLM later. It’s the tool I used to create the summary you just read. It also has the ability to create short podcast episodes based on the content you feed it.

It took 100+ pages of text and images and created a legitimately engaging 16 min podcast. It did that in about a minute. Wild.

If you don’t think your students/colleagues will read the full report, or even this newsletter, maybe they’ll listen to this short podcast episode.

This is the prompt I used for it.

And the actual podcast episode itself 👇

LINKEDIN SCREENSHOTS
What Educators Are Saying

This wouldn’t be a Modern Life Skills newsletter without some screenshots from LinkedIn. Decided to tap some of my favourite educators to help with some social proof and share their perspectives on the report.

Agree with Sabba. Time to double down on those core competencies and durable skills.

ps. Sabba is on a panel for this webinar on Feb 12th that I’m attending. You should check it out too.

• Building the Future Workforce: Integrating Durable Skills into K-12 Education

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Love this story from Lucy. The problems we’re solving, and the tools we’re using to solve them are always changing. The constant? Us humans.

Figure out how to human better. That skill will always be in demand.

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Say it louder for the people in the back Sinead!

“What’s becoming increasingly clear is that skills - more than degrees - are now the priority in hiring decisions”

I feel seen 😍

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Amanda is saying the quiet part out loud.

It’s the skills that pay the bills. Time to get that myBlueprint portfolio polished up.

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MY AI PROCESS
How I Used NotebookLM For This Newsletter

It’s not like NotebookLM is a secret. People are aware of it, but I don’t think it gets nearly as much attention as it deserves - especially as a legitimately helpful tool within the world of education for both students and educators.

Notebook LM is free. It’s made by Google. Super simple to use. There’s now a paid version (Plus) but looks like it’s most for teams to have a shared interface and includes more usage.

A lot of people like to talk about the Audio Overview (podcast) feature it has. That’s how I created the podcast in the first section. It is legitimately cool. But it’s not where you’re going to get the most value from this tool.

One of the reasons I like it the most is because I trust it the most.

Where these other foundational LLM (large language model) models like ChatGPT have been trained on all of the internet’s data, NotebookLM only uses whatever you feed it. You’re essentially training it with each individual Notebook you create.

Very helpful when it comes to worrying about hallucinating with AI aka making stuff up. From my experience, it doesn’t. It only responds with information that you’ve fed it, and then sources where in that document it found that information.

My WEF ‘Notebook’

For this newsletter, I created a Notebook (basically a folder) called WEF Jobs of the Future.

I then added a few pdf documents. You can also add websites and Youtube videos, but I’ve only ever added text to it.

It’s got a few standard built-in prompts like Briefing Doc, Study Guide, and FAQs it suggests asking based on what you’ve added, but the real magic comes from the prompts you give it, just like when talking to ChatGPT - specificity goes a long way to help you meet your goal.

You can talk to the sources you added as a group, or individually. That’s what I think makes this tool so cool.

So for the prompt below, I checked off two of the 3 sources I added. One wasn’t relevant.

Here are some key differences observed between the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2023 and the 2025 report:

Net Job Growth Outlook: The 2023 report projected a net decrease of 14 million jobs globally by 2027. In contrast, the 2025 report forecasts a net increase of 78 million jobs globally by 2030. This shift suggests a more optimistic outlook for job creation in the later report, possibly influenced by factors like increased adaptation to technological advancements and the growing impact of the green transition.

Projected Job Churn: Both reports emphasize significant job churn, indicating substantial reallocation of workers and jobs. The 2023 report estimated a mean structural labor-market churn of 23% for the 2023-2027 period. The 2025 report projects a slightly higher churn of 22% for the 2025-2030 period. This suggests a consistently dynamic labor market, with ongoing job creation and displacement.

Skills Instability: The 2023 report noted a stabilization of skill instability at 44%, down from a high of 57% in 2020. The 2025 report indicates a further decrease in skills instability to 39%. This suggests that workers and employers are adapting to rapid technological changes, and reskilling and upskilling efforts may be contributing to a slower rate of skill obsolescence.

Focus on Generative AI: While both reports acknowledge the impact of AI, the 2025 report places a particular emphasis on the transformative impact of generative AI (GenAI). The rise of GenAI is highlighted as a key driver of both job creation and job displacement, suggesting a significant shift in the skills and tasks required in the workplace.

In summary, the key changes between the two reports reflect a more optimistic outlook for job growth by 2030, potentially driven by adaptation to technological change and the green transition.

The reports consistently highlight the dynamic nature of the labor market and underscore the importance of continuous skills development for workers to thrive in the future of work.

Super helpful.

FYI - In the actual output in NotebookLM, it includes sources as numbers in the text that are clickable, and brings you to the text in the document where it found that info. They look weird when you copy/paste so I removed them in this newsletter.

The WEF report is great, but it’s global, and I mostly talk to Canadian educators and students, so then I decided to switch up my sources again and talk to a different report I had uploaded; a 2024 Future of Work report from the Conference Board of Canada.

Then I could have talked to all 3 sources together, added more, etc. You get the idea.

Data matters, and prompting matters with tools like this, which is why it’s important to know what questions you want to ask.

I still read (most of) these documents. I haven’t yet completely outsourced my knowledge consumption to AI, but it has helped to enhance it.

By knowing what was in these resources, I knew what questions to ask, and could create the output that made up this newsletter in a fraction of the time that it would have taken me to synthesize and summarize this information for you manually.

The 2024 Future of Work report highlights a looming challenge for the Canadian labor market: skill imbalances, which occur when the skills demanded by employers don't match the skills possessed by available workers.

This report would be extremely relevant to Canadian high school educators because it underscores the need to prepare students for a rapidly evolving job market and emphasizes the specific skills that will be in high demand in the coming years.

Here's a summary of the key takeaways from the report, emphasizing their relevance to educators:

Growing Job Vacancies: The report projects that job vacancies in Canada will reach 917,000 by 2040, driven in large part by skill imbalances. This means that even as the overall number of jobs is projected to grow, there will be a shortage of qualified workers to fill many of those positions. This highlights the urgency for educators to equip students with the skills needed to fill these emerging roles.

Skills Imbalances Across Industries: The report analyzes skill imbalances across three major industry clusters: goods-producing industries, knowledge-based services industries, and technical and manual services industries. While each cluster has its unique skills profile and projected needs, there are some overarching trends relevant to educators across disciplines.

• Foundational Skills Remain Essential: Skills like reading comprehension, active listening, oral communication, and numeracy are increasingly in demand across all industries. These skills form the bedrock for successful participation in any workplace, emphasizing the continued importance of strong foundational education in high school.

• Analytical and Problem-Solving Skills are Growing in Importance: As automation takes over routine tasks, analytical skills like critical thinking, problem-solving, evaluation, and systems analysis are becoming more valuable, particularly in goods-producing industries. Educators should focus on developing students' ability to think critically, solve complex problems, and adapt to changing circumstances.

• Interpersonal Skills are Crucial: Despite technological advancements, interpersonal skills like social perceptiveness, coordination, negotiation, and persuasion remain in high demand, particularly in knowledge-based services and technical and manual services industries. These skills are essential for effective communication, collaboration, and customer service, highlighting the need to foster students' interpersonal competence.

Importance of Lifelong Learning: The report stresses that promoting lifelong learning is key to reducing skill imbalances. This means that educators should not only impart knowledge but also instill a mindset of continuous learning and adaptability in their students. Encouraging students to embrace ongoing education and skills development will be crucial for their long-term career success in a dynamic labor market.

Specific Skills in Demand: The report identifies specific skills that are expected to be in high demand in the coming years. This information can help educators tailor their curricula and programs to better align with the needs of the future workforce. For example:

• Material Handlers: This occupation is projected to see the largest increase in vacancies across multiple industries.

• Healthcare Professionals: Occupations like nurses, nurses' aides, and licensed practical nurses are expected to experience significant growth in vacancies, highlighting the importance of STEM education and healthcare-related pathways.

• Software Engineers and Designers: As technology continues to advance, the demand for software engineers and designers is expected to rise considerably.

By understanding the projected skills needs of the future Canadian labor market, high school educators can play a vital role in shaping the next generation of workers. They can adapt their teaching methods, curricula, and career guidance to better equip students with the knowledge, skills, and adaptability they will need to thrive in the rapidly evolving world of work.

HOW TO CREATE AN ACTIVITY OUT OF THIS
How I Would Use AI to Create a ‘Lesson’

Here are a few ideas:

Ask AI to create class discussion questions from the content you gave it. This would likely work better if you asked students to read the content first, but not required. You know your kids better than I do.

In this screenshot, you can see I’m in NotebookLM. I asked it to look only at the Future of Work Report from Conference Board of Canada and come up with some class based discussion questions I could prompt my students with.

Those little numbers are the sources from the main doc where it’s referencing that information from. They are clickable.

💡As an extra step, add your curriculum doc as a source to this Notebook, and then in your prompt, ask it to identify which curriculum connections are being met through whatever activity/lesson you generate.

This one’s an experiment. You should experiment too. Only way to learn and develop those skills WEF said we need.

I found this PBL prompt from Darren Coxon on LinkedIn. I reluctantly replaced [Animal Farm] with ‘findings from the WEF report’.

I used the WEF report as the source. Otherwise I used the prompt as it.

You would want to fine tune the prompt a bit for your curriculum, your students, and your use case, but I kept it a bit more general for this example.

Examples with students using AI:

and

If you think those outputs are a little intense, remember the power of using tools like this is in the back and forth conversation, and providing context. The more context about your situation and your desired goal, the better the output you will get.

Here are a couple other examples, where I asked for PBL activities where students don’t have access to AI tools.

and

💡 Whatever activity you create, or tool you use to make them (even if that’s just your brain) to be sure to explain why you’re doing the activity - why WEF believes these skills are in demand, and why it makes students to be aware of where the puck is going.

That way you’ll hopefully have less students asking why you’re doing this activity.