Outside In | Are you prepared for a future of tech-driven job disruption? Chances are, you’re on your own
David Dodwell says as large corporations mull over upskilling their workers, let’s not forget that most Hong Kong workers are employed by small companies with far fewer resources. Asking them to take responsibility for their own lifelong learning will be a huge challenge
When I was launched as a wide-eyed graduate into the world of journalism in 1974, there was one requirement. I had to buy a typewriter. That was my first bank loan. Within six months – as a compulsory requirement of the craft – I had to learn to touch-type and master shorthand up to a speed of 100 words a minute.
I still use the shorthand today. It used to impress my daughters much more than anything I learned at university. But that grand old Olympus typewriter – then the indispensable tool of any journalist’s trade – is today buried somewhere deep in a landfill. By 1981, the Financial Times was sending me and other bright young things over to Germany to learn how to work new computer-networked desktop machines that cost US$10,000 each. Craft-based print unions that had held Fleet Street in thrall for three centuries quickly disappeared.
There were profound nods across the room agreeing that the workplace challenge was unprecedented. Life was being disrupted.