Will we still do traditional degrees?

Career coach Mark Anderson predicts the rise of apprenticeship degrees, where students undertake paid work alongside their studies, with their education paid for by their employers. Students may earn “microcredentials” on shorter courses that contribute to their degree and many courses will mix online and face-to-face learning – a process widely adopted during the pandemic.

The jobs market of the future will continue to evolve, meaning that people will need to be reskilling and continuing to learn throughout their life.

Anderson advises young people to look at the list of 17 world development goals published by the United Nations. “These are world problems that need to be solved – hunger, clean water, pollution, education,” he explains. “This will help you find an area you care about.”

Nikolas Badminton believes that in the future work will be purpose-driven and there will be no straightforward jobs for life – instead, people will work on different projects simultaneously. “We’ll be a society of generalists and people with multiple projects on the go,” he says. “Jobs might be seen as a ‘constellation of projects’.”

Which is why Badminton is hopeful for his own child. “In 2040, he will be 19. I am glad that he will be able to take advantage of all the automated services around him and not have to spend weekends flipping burgers.

“The fact that kids today can build a business on a phone, it’s incredible... If you have got the skills and work hard enough, you can achieve something pretty incredible.”