Friday, March 29, 2024

‘New collar’ jobs are hot jobs of the future, says IBM regional exec

“New collar” jobs or occupations which have evolved or have been augmented due to the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) by corporations are the hot jobs of the future.

IBM Asean general manager Patricia Yim

Speaking to Newsbytes.PH at a one-on-one interview at Shangri-la at the Fort on August 15, IBM Asean general manager Patricia Yim said these new collar jobs require new skills and make some existing ones irrelevant in the future.

These new skills which include soft skills and a STEM background, she said, are what workers and students should arm themselves with in order to snag these jobs of the future. Among these new collar jobs are those dealing with security such as security analysts.

“This area is huge because the more we do everything online, the more people would try to hack it,” said Yim. “A whole group of people need to be educated and therefore new jobs are created.”

New collar jobs also include data scientists who will perform analytics, she said, owing to the voluminous amount of valuable data being generated when people buy online, click certain sites, and others. Such data are important for companies aiming to improve their products and services and enhance customer experience and therefore need to be analyzed by trained professionals.

“We need to know what to do with the data. If someone knows what to do with the data, new insights are formed,” Yim explained.

Additionally, though automation does displace some workers, it generates new jobs as well. The need to automate systems and processes is attributed to the fact that people are getting more comfortable with mobile devices and the Internet. As they increase their utilization of these technologies, they begin to look for faster ways of doing things and being more productive. Automation makes these possible for them and therefore the jobs it creates are also among the hot jobs of the future.

Other new collar jobs are those dealing with cloud computing which paves the way for new business models and those connected with blockchain technology and AI.

To help upskill the global workforce and get them ready for new collar jobs, Yim said that IBM works with governments and educational institutions including those in the Philippines.

In October this year, some 10-15 volunteer employees from various IBM offices outside the Philippines are set to work with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) central office and two of its agencies, the Food and Nutrition Research Institute and Science and Technology Information Institute.

The initiative is part of the tech company’s Corporate Service Corps (CSC) which annually deploys volunteers to various countries to help solve problems faced by government offices and non-profit organizations by bringing in technology, industry knowledge, and new skills.

For DOST and its two agencies, the IBM volunteers will work on knowledge management, security enhancement, analytics, assess of data, policies around data, and other critical issues related to data.

The CSC program has been in operation since 2008. In the Philippines, IBM volunteers also previously worked with DILG, IRRI, SEARCA, NEDA, and local government units.

Subscribe

- Advertisement -spot_img

RELEVANT STORIES

spot_img

LATEST

- Advertisement -spot_img