Employment Opportunities

Alongside the growth of ICT is the rise of new jobs and also the decrease and changes of some old jobs. There are three vital related aspects to the changes of types of jobs people do, how they do them and where. These are automation, globalisation and flexibility.

People have been replaced by machines in some areas of jobs. In the UK and overseas, some factories in the manufacturing industry have been replaced by factories employing CNC (Computer Numerical Control), automated machines and robotics. Banks have also take advantage of the ICT by establishing an automated clearing system for cheques and other payments. Bank tellers or counter assistants have been replaced by ATMs (Automated Teller Machines). Numerous administrative jobs in banks could be replaced by computers.

Some of the new jobs that brought by ICT are:

• IT Teacher
• IT Technician
• Computer Engineers
• Web Designer
• Programmers

Jobs that have changed:

• Bloggers
• Accounts
• Banking
• Film Makers
• Music Makers

Jobs that have disappeared:

• Shorthand typists
• Ticket collectors on stations
• Gas light lighters
• Chimney sweeps
• Thatchers

Activity 2 Analysing the 'good old days'

Tasks:

• The two different office applications that could be used by the small business to improve the paper-based systems employed in the 1970s are word processing and presentation software.
• The advantaged of using office software such as word processing are it is easy to do work using it and quick to finish office works like letters and memos. On the other hand, the advantages of using presentation software are also easy to do work on it and quick for making reports.
• The demand for shorthand typists has dimished enormously because of the advent of these office software packages. However, there is still an active and strong demand for secretaries.
• Many new jobs have been created because of ICT and the most obvious ones are IT jobs, internet and e-commerce work.