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A look at the future of work after Covid

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Like any other area that has been disrupted by Covid-19, the world of work will not be the same again. Take the case of Rispa who has worked as a secretary for an international financial institution for the past seven years.

When Covid-19 struck last year she like all other employees started to work remotely. And by that time, it was expected that come January 2021, all will be well and they will go back to their jobs. That did not happen.

In January this year her employer terminated her services since the organisation could do with fewer secretaries. This is because unlike before, senior staff could now handle their own schedules in addition to their daily assignments. But while she was still coming to terms with the job loss, her husband Ken, an accountant, was also laid off in early February from one of the five-star hotels that closed doors due to the pandemic.

Rispa and Ken are not alone. Their plight is a global problem necessitated by changing trends in the workplace. Although the change was expected to happen sometime in the future, Covid-19 accelerated its disruptive path.

The McKinsey Global Institute’s February 2021 report, ‘The Future of work after Covid-19’, corroborates this, stating that many of the trends that characterised the pandemic will persist.

The new normal of remote work that we are experiencing and virtual interactions, e-commerce and digital transactions, deployment of automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are going nowhere. The tragedy is that those losing jobs may never get the same job again.

Policy makers, entrepreneurs and educators must simply wake up to this reality and address the ‘the growing skills gap and reskilling challenge that lies ahead.’

Several countries saw it coming and accordingly started to prepare their citizens. In bid to prepare its citizens for the future of work, Korea has been leveraging the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) technologies. For example, they have been using the Virtual Reality (VR) to improve education through adaptive learning. VR classrooms and skills training offered by The University of Technology and Education of Korea (KOREATECH) is used for repeated practising of disassembling or reassembling equipment without actual — often expensive or large-scale — equipment, or developing skills in hazardous tasks.

Attempts to get Africa into the future pedestal have not succeeded. It is worth noting that in May 2019, more than 50 African countries gathered in Kigali to deliberate on the implementation of a World Bank-sponsored project, Partnership for skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET) in conjunction with KOREATECH. The aim of the project was to support skills development in information, communication and technology (ICT) and its application to different fields using 4IR technologies in African countries. In spite of the World Bank promising billions of dollars, there were no follow-ups after Kigali.

Many of those who have lost jobs locally are those who are working in areas of close physical proximity. And the report also says that high levels of human interactions have had most change. If this situation persists as the report suggests, the impact on low-wage earners working in such spaces will have serious repercussions. Unlike in the past when such workers would find other jobs, this time around, it may not be possible.

The trends accelerated by Covid‑19 show that to remain employed, more than half of the low-wage workers currently in declining occupations would need to shift to occupations in higher wage brackets that require different skills.

The McKinsey report suggests that policymakers and business leaders can help workers in making the big job transitions by creating an opportunity for re-skilling.

With the high unemployment cases on the increase, Kenya’s Ministry of Labour, Social and Security Services and otherstakeholders need to look at future of work with a view of empowering low-income earners.