‘Think skills, not just careers’ was the key takeaway from the latest report, The New Work Mindset, released by the Foundation for Young Australians (FYA).

The New Work Mindset is part of a series of reports called The New Work Order, which have been released by the FYA since mid-2015. It shows that the way we work will be increasingly affected by three global economic forces – automation, globalisation and collaboration.

The report suggests that in the future, young people should be focusing on their strengths and weaknesses, rather than the one ‘dream’ job. In order for young people to navigate the challenges and flourish in this new environment, they need a set of transferable skills to enhance their employability.

The good news is, the research showed that when a person trains or works in one job, they acquire skills for 13 other jobs. By using a first-time methodology for analysing millions of job advertisements, the report showed that all jobs and occupations can be grouped into seven ‘clusters of work’.

The clusters are:

• The Artisans (builders and maintainers)
• The Generators (sellers and servers)
• The Coordinators (balance the books and do repetitive tasks)
• The Informers (teach and provide information)
• The Designers (use expertise to construct or engineer things)
• The Carers (improve the wellbeing of others)
• The Technologists (understand and manipulate digital technology)

So instead of focusing on a dream job, it may be more useful for young people to focus on their dream ‘cluster’, based on their skills and interests. Developing a portfolio of applicable skills will help ensure that young people are more easily available to move between roles.

For more information, read The New Work Mindset.

If you are about to graduate and will be embarking on a job hunt very soon, it could be worth your while to attend our Graduate Gateway Employability Prep Series.