Careers for a New Millennium

by Dave Berry

Give serious consideration to career factors for the 21st century. What will the work force look like then? What types of skills will be important? What can we learn now about education, jobs, occupations, and careers that will help us live happy and productive lives? How will this affect my college search? Here are some interesting research findings reported by the Hudson Institute in their Workforce 2000 report:

Jobs created between now and the year 2000 will be different from those today and will require higher skill levels.

The fastest-growing occupations will require much higher math, language, and reasoning abilities than current jobs.

Many jobs with lower skill levels will disappear.

Today, inexpensive office and home computers are more powerful than the machines used to guide the Apollo rocket that carried man to the moon in 1969.

Computers that think like people will become commonplace by 2000.

Digital telecommunications will make home shopping, banking, working from home, and even dial- up music or video entertainment possible.

Silicon secretaries that can take dictation and edit letters, reservation clerks that understand speech in any language, and robots that can load a truck or pick strawberries will be coming into wide use by 2000.

Technological advances will make it possible for people to work fewer hours with more time off for vacations and child rearing.

More demanding jobs will continue to emerge in the U.S. economy. More than half of all new jobs created by the year 2005 will require some formal training beyond high school. Almost a third of all new jobs will be filled by college graduates compared to only 22 percent today. Youth who drop out of school or complete high school without obtaining basic reading and math skills will be at a great disadvantage in the workplace of 2005.

There are a number of paths of higher education after high school. If you don't want to go to college for a two-year associates or four-year bachelor's degree, you may want to consider the option of a career and technology school. These schools offer technical education opportunities in such diverse areas as trade and industrial applications, academic- and business-related fields, computer software, the medical industry, and finance.

There are big changes on the horizon for America's workforce. Take stock of your situation now. Create a plan that will get you from where you are now to where you want to go.