Education is the key for 40-plus workers
When computers had no memory, punch girls did the job. In the 1960s, Margaret Douglas started her career in IT, punching computer code onto magnetic strips at the Whangarei City Council.
The computer she used to work with, now sits on show at Motat. She can still read binary code.
Decades later, mobile phones, email and Google exist and Douglas still works in the industry she loves.
But she said it was not easy to stay on top of technology as it evolved in front of her eyes.
The key was to never stop learning, she said.
‘‘I have done a fair amount of
I have done a fair amount of upskilling. Margaret Douglas.
upskilling on the way and I am still doing education now.
‘‘A lot of it you have to do yourself. You cannot expect your employer to cover it all off, you have got to keep working at it.’’
United States Future of Talent Institute chairman Kevin Wheeler, raised the alarm to New Zealand corporates about the importance of upskilling and retraining staff as technology and automation would inevitably take over jobs.
Wheeler told human resources executives here that they needed to encourage staff above 40-yearsold to increase their technology capabilities so they could adapt to new types of work.
He said Millennials were better off because they were raised in the digital era and could foresee and adapt to evolving trends.
Wheeler said the understanding of technology had forced an age divide in workplaces.
‘‘You’re dealing with a generational difference here. When you are dealing with people in their 40s, 50s, 60s, this stuff [automation and technology] is devastating.’’
He said human resources played a significant role in minimising this fear among the older work force.
Notifying staff of future changes was necessary to prevent them from becoming useless and unemployed, he said.