Education and automation
Today automation and robots are taking over many jobs, but they also create new jobs and new industries. As more automation is taking place, more educated workers are needed, and the education system must change quickly to meet this need. When the Industrial Revolution began in the late 19th century with steam engines, combustion engines, assembly lines, and electricity, etc. The typical education level of many people at that time was equal to the elementary school of today. To work on the factory assembly lines, workers must know more than just read and write, they must understand the basic concept of a factory operation and other factors such as productivity, efficiency, and quality. To get factory jobs, workers had to go back to school to learn these new skills. Eventually, the typical education level of factory workers was raised to be equal to a high school education of today.
When the education level of lower-skilled agriculture workers was raised to better-skilled factory workers, it also raised the standard of living and improved the economy. Frederick Taylor, one of the pioneers of the Industrial Age wrote that people are motivated by money. Factory works on production assembly lines needed high productivity and quantity and to achieve that, the company should pay workers based on some the item they produced. Since workers are motivated to produce more, they got paid more and factory jobs are considered better than agriculture jobs. Over time, the standard of living of factory workers in an industrial society was raised to a higher level. When workers had more money, they spent more which drove the manufacturing to produce more, and this cycle pushed the economy to a prosperous level.
Today the advent of computers and the Internet begin to raise the level of education of workers to another level. As factory jobs were eliminated or outsourced, workers had to go back to school to learn new skills such as computer skills, programming skills, and problem-solving skills. New technology always produces more complex jobs than the previous ones, so workers need to learn newer skills equal to a college education and continue to learn more to keep up with changes. An economist wrote: “In the 21st century, countries that have the best education will have an advantage over others because education is the fuel for technology innovation.”
Technological progress is the primary driver of economic growth in the 21st century because it increases productivity, efficiency and reduces costs. To meet this needs, the education system should focus more on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). As automation opens up new jobs, new industries, new opportunities for more people but during the transition, it also disrupts the current livelihoods of many people, mostly workers whose labor skills are no longer needed. The problem that many countries is facing today is how to replace the current skills of workers with the new skills so they can keep their job. Although robots can do more works faster and cheaper than human workers robots, have to be designed and build by new types of workers such as mechanical engineers, hardware engineers, and software engineers. When robots work in factories, companies have hired robotics technicians to monitor them, maintain them, and fix them when needed. Therefore, “automation” is not about eliminated jobs but changing the type of jobs and advancing the skills of workers.
Thirty years ago when globalization began, companies outsourced factory works to other countries because their cost was cheaper. With the advancement of technology, it is now much cheaper to use robots than people. Robots can work 24 hours and 7 days a week nonstop but never complain. According to an industry report, a typical robot is working for about 30 cents an hour, but a labor worker in India or China will cost at least $5 an hour, so factory automation with robots is a better choice for company owners. Unfortunately, without proper planning, without looking far ahead, and without understanding the impact of technology, many countries continue to invest in manufacturing with lower labor skills and still hope that manufacturing outsourcing will continue. Begin in 2010, when manufacturing companies started to use robots and stopped sending works oversea, millions of labor workers lost their jobs. Since then, the number of unemployed labor workers continues to increase and soon will reach a critical stage.
Last month during a technology conference in Asia, a government official raised a question: “Is it possible to design robots in one country then outsource the manufacturing of robots to another cheaper labor country to reduce cost? The speaker who are a professor in robotics, answered: “It is difficult to build robots in a country where workers do not have the proper education and the laws do not respect intellectual property. A robot is not a simple machine with components to be assembled, but sophisticated systems with thousands of complex parts that have to be integrated accordingly by people who understand how they work. It requires specific training, at least at a college education level.”
The impact of technology -driven automation is a major challenge for every country, every government, and its people. As technology begins to impact many companies, change many types of jobs, transform many skills of workers, it also eliminates many jobs, destroy many companies, and creates devastating effects on countries that are still depending on labor-intensive manufacturing works. Without changing the education system quickly, the country's economy will not survive, and the society could fall into chaos. The question is: “Can the education system change fast enough to meet the needs of the 21st century?
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
