Alarm bells can signal opportunity

It is time to think seriously about the future of employment.

When I was still at primary school, my family moved to Morrinsville and took over an orchard my grandparents had been running. It was a pretty diverse operation – we grew everything from tamarillos to nashi pears. It was really small but we had the basics in terms of fruit processing, including what was probably the oldest grader in operation, complete with old sacks that were used to stop the graded fruit from bruising. I thought it was the height of technology – I had no idea what was coming.

Fast forward a couple of decades, and visits to places like Zespri with their high-tech graders and packing systems blow my mind. It’s both state of the art and only the beginning of what is possible.

The automation that is entering every level of industry is far reaching, and happening at a rapid pace. In fact, at a conference Labour held this year, Robert Reich pointed out that we have long had job losses and disruption from technology (think back to a time when elevators had full-time staff operating them) but it is the pace of the current transformational change that is one of the defining features of this next industrial revolution.

But the pace of change has not been matched by any sense of urgency within Government. Even in the face of estimates that automation and technological advances could see more than 40 per cent of existing jobs disappear within 15 years in New Zealand, there has been barely a peep from National. We are facing a giant alarm bell that needs to be turned into an opportunity.

Two years ago we decided to confront this challenge head on with something we called The Future of Work Commission. We were guided by a group of thinkers, those in the field of education and training, employers, and representatives of workers. We posed the question – how do we prepare ourselves for the future; a future where the difference between being a country where people can realise their potential and one that is further forced into low wages and even lower levels of productivity, will be our ability to keep training and educating our workforce.

This weekend not only marks the Labour conference, but the release of The Future of Work Commission report. It is a roadmap of sorts for how we can respond confidently to what Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum has described as a ‘‘technological revolution’’ that ‘‘will be unlike anything human kind has seen before’’. At its core must be the notion that education can no longer be a destination with an end point, but something that people dip in and dip out of, and that ensures our workforce is resilient and adaptable. That is what our announcement of three years free post-secondary school education was all about.

But that’s only part of Labour’s Future of Work map. If the future of work is changing, our advice to young people must change as well. It’s time to give them access to professionalised career guidance. We also plan to offer financial support and mentoring to 100 young entrepreneurs to develop their ideas as our next generation of change makers, and improve access to skills and training throughout life for every Kiwi.

The report has many recommendations, and now is the time to start debating them. We have some bottom lines though – while we welcome the flexibility and opportunity offered by new technology, Labour will always be focused on the security and dignity of work. It is the core of what enables people to have meaningful and fulfilling lives, and the core of our party for one hundred years.

Ultimately, the Future of Work in New Zealand is bright – but only if we make the policies and plans that put people at the centre.