Technology; The Future of Trades

I'm really supportive of what I've seen from the budget and New Zealand's approach towards education and upskilling in a time where our economy is going through a massive period of change. The investment towards trades training makes a lot of sense too. It's a way to create a lot of jobs and kick-start our economy again, when both the job market and economy will desperately need it. The one thing I found a shade disappointing though was that we seemed to have not put the same investment into what the longer-term future is likely to need.

Unless you've been living under a (socially isolated) rock you've become acutely aware of our reliance on technology. This is now. If you haven't Zoomed yourself half to death, found Teams or Slack as your new way to chat and used one of Planner/Trello/Miro/Mural/Workplace to virtually collaborate then were you really working? My biggest measure of the technological adoption that's occurred is that I actually have seen a drastic reduction in email traffic during lockdown as other more efficient tools have reduced the need. Okay, so I think we can agree there's a reliance on technology now and the future, whatever it holds, will likely see a huge increase in that rather than a reduction. We should be looking at how we're going to handle the next Covid-19, whatever form it might be.

The point I've seen raised on technology or ICT though, is that it's an enabler rather than a subject or sector. Where once computing was clearly a sector in its own right, we know view the technology 'sector' as being prevalent across all businesses and all other sectors. I remember in a former role being involved with looking at construction apprenticeships and the use of technology to start recording and assessing their progress through their training. Tech is an enabler I concede, but so is trades actually. We don't build offices, highways and shopping malls for the love of building. We don't kit out complexes with the supplies they need, build houses because they cover the ground better than grass, or supply electricity because it needs to flow somewhere. The areas we see as Trades are all there to service our country and part of the journey rather than the destination. In this way we should consider tech to be a trade too - it's the trade of the future.

We're not going to stop needing highways, but the super highways of the future are virtual like so many of our meetings have been. The building that has housed all our meetings over the last few months was 'built' by technology and by 'builders' working in software development. When we had security concerns about our 'building' we called on specialists with the right experience in building security to make the changes, they work virtually in ICT. The transport to get you to work was more of a data bus than a physical bus and when that needs maintenance or fixing, what trade do you turn to? How important was the internet to you over the last few months for work and leisure?

 Short-term I think NZ is right to turn to trades. Long-term this trade package needs to include tech and ICT if we're really investing in NZ's future. And if you're looking for a career for the future - you should certainly consider tech and modern business, whatever your trade right now might be.