Gateway Jobs

Jobs don’t all have the same potential for developing skills. Some are like escalators; the experience of being on them moves you up. Others are cul-de-sacs, bad, dead-end jobs that take you nowhere. In the future, skills and curricula in the future will develop against a shift towards a post 2030 global society at ease with the formation and spread of closed loop indigenous cultures (CLICs). In the best future economic context, the definition of ‘indigenous’ takes on the form of deep place, where people’s prosperity is coupled with local education, jobs and leisure. Deep Place is a holistic approach to indigenisation through lifetime education for sustainable place-making, focussed on how to practically achieve more economically, socially, environmentally and culturally sustainable places and communities. In a deep place, good jobs are gateways to the development of foundational skills on the job, such as listening, communication, empathy, judgment, and decision-making. It turns out these skills play a key role in unlocking the value of technical skills. Indeed, without them, individuals cannot entirely utilise their technical skills. These basic skills are also valuable over a lifetime of work. “Gateway” jobs have already been identified as having no two days alike, such as customer service, sales, computer support, vocational nursing, blacksmith welding and machining, where each day calls for a different response. They may grow workers who have acquired skills through alternative routes (STARs). STARs are defined as individuals at least 25 years old, currently active in the workforce, and not having a university degree. Valuable skills are learned on the job. In fact, research has found that millions of STARs have demonstrated skills for roles with salaries at least 50% higher than their current job. The experience of work itself is a major developer of skills and 94% of business leaders said they expect their employees to pick up new skills on the job.