Here’s an interesting mini-activity/webquest to do in your Careers Unit. We all know that the economy today is not the same economy that our parents entered when they completed their education. Columnist Tom Friedman is fond of saying that your parent’s generation “got a job” but millenials increasingly need to be able to “create their own job.” Reading the headlines we get constant reminders of the rapid pace of change.

Here is the NY Times headline and lede that caught my attention today: Self Driving Truck’s First Mission: Beer Run:

The futurists of Silicon Valley may not have seen this one coming: The first commercial delivery made by a self-driving truck was 2,000 cases of Budweiser beer. On Tuesday, Otto, the Uber-owned self-driving vehicle operation, announced the completion of its first commercial delivery, having delivered its beer load from Fort Collins, Colo., to Colorado Springs, a roughly 120-mile trip on Interstate 25.

Combine this article with this map of the most common jobs by state (spoiler alert: for most, its a truck driver) and you get a sense for the massive dislocation that very well may occur in this blue-collar field in the years ahead. Yet, this is just one example of automation coming to a job near you.

So, how can we translate this into an activity for your students that gives them an action plan?

1. Start by having your students review this graph which shows the probability of a specific job being automated. I know it looks gnarly but once students orient themselves to the axes (likelihood of automation on the Y axis and hourly wage on the X axis), they should be fine.
2. Have students pick four jobs on the graph (might make sense to make this a group project on further reflection so each student gets one job to research):
   1. Low wage, high potential for automation (upper left hand corner)
   2. High wage, high potential for automation (upper right hand corner)
   3. Low wage, low potential for automation (lower left corner)
   4. High wage, low potential for automation (lower right corner)
3. Questions for students to research for each of the jobs above:
   1. What attributes about the job make it more/less likely to be automated?
   2. How are companies trying to automate this specific job? For example, is it software, algorithms, robots, artificial intelligence, machine learning. Find 2-3 specific companies and their methods of trying to automate a given job.
   3. Putting your futurist hat on, when do you anticipate this change taking place (e.g., 5 years, 10 years, 20 years)? What are the hurdles to overcome before the job can be automated?
   4. Compare the job skills that each of your group members collected on their job. What common threads do you see that explain what types of jobs are likely to be automated?
   5. How will this activity inform your career decisions?

Extension Idea #1: Many jobs that exist today didn’t exist 5 years ago. Have your students research the types of new jobs being developed and look for one that interests them.

Extension Idea #2: Interview one or both of your parents/guardians to learn more about

1. How their field has changed over time?
2. How they have adapted to these changes through education and training?
3. How they see their current field developing in the years ahead?
4. Do they agree/disagree with the graph from #1 about the likelihood that their current job will be automated?

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Check out the NGPF Interactive Library for other great ideas on engaging your students about the changing employment landscape.

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Update: Looking for additional articles (that don’t mention beverages):

• Self-driving trucks impact on drivers’ jobs (The Guardian)
• World’s first self-driving semi truck hits the road (Wired)

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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