What careers are future proof?

[9hdtvey54r]

I am thinking of retraining and wondering what careers do you think are future proof? I think the trades are e.g. plumber, electrician etc - any other thoughts? Thank you.

Do people think customer service type jobs will ever completely go? Like bank helpline numbers . Or jobs which help people in crisis and needing someone to speak to.

i feel like automated customer service numbers are so far from being user friendly still. I am not sure if there will always be a need to be able to speak to an actual person

Yes but surely as AI will be learning all the time from each project it does, it will know what to do if processes slip or deadlines change and perform the associated protocol?

I think there's always going to be a need to speak to an actual person, but will companies fulfil that need when they can save money by using chatbots? Unlikely. They'll just make it more and more difficult to speak to an actual person until people give up.

The funeral industry. My DD (25) is in it. They can't recruit enough. Mind you, it IS physical and needs a special mind set. She was offered a full time contract during the interview.

Is there a need for skilled fx make up artists in this industry?

They do need make-up people, but not sure about the FX bit. My daughter did a week in Introductory Embalming to get her initial skills, but she also picks up bodies, liaises with families, drives hearses, does coffin bearing....it's a varied profession.

If we had UBI how would employers fill their shitty call centre jobs?

Interesting!
Where would someone apply?

Honestly, she just kept knocking on doors after she got her Embalming Cert. There's no one way in, or any specific training course. Most go in after being in the medical industry or their family own the business.

I said "becoming", not that it had happened already. Look at the age profile of white Brirish people - over 50s are almost all white. Under 25s, not at all.

This is the case in London already, with 40% of the resident population being born outside the UK, and white British people make up only 36% of the remainder. All these stats are from official sources like ONS. The birth rate of the indigenous UK population is very low compared to the immigrant population, so it is now on a fairly inevitable course to happen. Estimates are being revised upwards all the time, with local and national councils having to redo strategy because of the accelerating changes compared to forecast.

Obviously a vicar would be CofE. There will be other denominations, some of whom are also Christian.

Immigration even over the last 5 years (4 years of which since the 2021 census) has been significantly higher than historically. 1.2 million people came in one year in 2022. In 2023 "net migration" was 900k, which means the gross migration could have been higher than 1.2 million. The previous estimate of when white British people will be in a minority nationwide was 2066. This has been revised to 2056.

I'm surprised by the level of ignorance out there about these basic facts. Im not over-exaggerating or sensationalising. I live in London, this rings true. I've tried to present it neutrally so I'm surprised you've reacted like that.

This means a vicar would be one of the worst choices, as in approx 20 years there will be unlikely to be many vicars around.

This was predicted in 2000, see attached article. In reality it's changed much more quickly. It's fairly inevitable and I find it weird that it's so controversial.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/sep/03/race.world1

Funeral.director, psychologist, doctor,.nurse, teacher.

No it isn't. Not with the ongoing trend for disposal of body, rather than a full blown funeral.

More and more is "self service" via the internet/websites, and a lot of the time, actually speaking to a person achieves nothing more than you could have done yourself online anyway as they're just ticking the same boxes and typing the same comments as you could do online yourself. The call centre workers often can't actually "do" anything beyond what you could do yourself and still have to "refer" you to someone else to deal with or call you back, in just the same way you could have triggered a response via a website form or automated live chat. Website forms, live chats etc are getting better all the time, especially with AI.

My son had this over the past few weeks trying to get a sofa delivered by Sofology (never again). Despite phoning them several times, their call handlers could do nothing more than select delivery options/dates from their delivery firm online website which he had to keep doing as they kept cancelling the delivery or not turning up and not arranging a new date until he went through the call centre again to choose another date! He kept asking for his complaints to be escalated, and they said they would,. but it never happened, no call backs at all, no response to complaints. Every human he spoke to just did the same thing, i.e. ticked boxes on the delivery firm's website to keep re-arranging every failed delivery - it was all they could do. They did nothing else. You have to wonder what the point of them is when all they can do is the same as a customer could do.

There really is no point in human call centres UNLESS those humans have better training and can actually "do" things beyond what the customer can do online, i.e. problem solving, flexibility, banging heads together, etc.

One problem is how society will work with fewer jobs. Who are all these companies who have automated everything using AI going to sell their products to if no one has work?

Selling labor is our current solution for allocating resources. What do we do if it doesn't work anymore?

First we needed lots of manual labor. But machines started doing that. Then we needed lots of intellectual labor but now machines are doing that.

What we will have left is the stubbornly difficult or too dangerous to fully automate parts of manual and intellectual labor (e.g. plumbers and developers of air traffic control systems etc) plus emotional labor.

But all manner of new "personal" services industries have sprung up such as personal trainers, nail bars, tattoo parlours, online "influencers", gyms, dog walkers, child care, OAP care, cosmetic surgery/dentistry, plus the rise in hospitality, tourism, entertainment, etc.

We may not need people to make widgets in vast numbers anymore, but, as history has shown, when one door closes, another one opens.

Working with the deceased isnt going to stop being an option in our lifetime.

There are lots of religions that simply wouldn't put up with the idea of a "disposal" of a body without the requisite "rites", preparations, formal funerals, viewings, etc. Just because "some" religions are losing popularity, doesn't mean "all" religions - lots are as strong and powerful as ever and some are growing.

How about gardening ( not lawn mowing and hedge clipping) but specialist gardening looking after and pruning nicer plants?

or forestry ?

I agree with you to a great extent but in the future ( goodness knows when ) I think there will be very life robot pets , remember the tamogatchi (sp?) taking the world by storm for a bit.
Robot pets mean you could swap them for a new / better/ different one whenever you want.

This bbc sounds program covers AI and animals that work for a living, ferrets, dogs and rats .
I kept ferrets for many years and I fully agree with the guy that owns them .
They will do anything to get down a tunnel and they a whole heap of cute

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002c368?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Drones will kill that. Look at Manna Aero in Dublin - they will fly you anything up to 2kg and are cheaper than delivery drivers.

Physical healthcare.

Nursing and medicine.