The old skills are going to be important again soon.

When I was in school we were all told to become engineers as the buildings were booming and the people who were in that trade were making huge money and there was a limited supply for those positions.

Fast forward five years when I am doing a civil engineering course and the banks have gone bust, the buildings have stalled and the engineers are now working in hotels and bars to pay their mortgage.

The world is constantly changing and there is point in trying to plan a future if your not looking forward to where the skills shortages will be not where they are right now.

Right now the country needs IT staff, programmers, coders, factory workers and construction workers in huge numbers.

That is going to change again soon. It's changing right now with the upheaval in America and it will change further as AI develops and replaces a lot of human jobs.

Even now I can ask AI what jobs it will replace in the near future.

• Data Entry and Administrative Tasks:
• Accounting and Bookkeeping:
• Customer Service Representatives:
• Basic Legal Research
• Retail and Cashier Roles
• Manufacturing and Assembly Line Workers
• Transportation and Delivery Drivers
• Basic Content Creation

Timeline: Many of these changes are already underway and could scale significantly within 5–10 years, depending on adoption rates, costs, and regulation. Jobs requiring creativity, complex decision-making, or human empathy (e.g., teachers, therapists, strategic leaders) are less likely to be fully replaced soon.
Ref: Grok.

That is a lot of jobs that will be under pressure in the next decade among many others. What AI can't replace just yet is hard physical non standard work.

The trades are a great example of this. Plumber, builder, plasterer, painters. Trades that are already undersupplied and overpriced.

The main problem being that they require hard work to earn money which is a trait not found as often in the next generation. A generation who were handed everything, worked for nothing and don't have the same value in money and hard work that older generations had through necessity.

If your handed money it has no value, especially compared to money earned through your own ingenuity.

Even more than that these are necessary life skills once you reach a certain point in life. I would be embarrassed to call a tradesman for simple tasks that can easily be done yourself.

Regardless of the cost associated with it being able to complete small jobs around the house is part of life and a good skill to carry across all walks of life.

I painted my metal gates this weekend. $20 worth of spray paint and about two hours of work. Simple work, easy to set up and finish. It gives me a sense of satisfaction to start and finish a task that improves my house and gets me out in the fresh air.

If I had to call a person to do this for me it would not be easy.

• It would take a few weeks for them to arrive.
• It would involve a lot of phone calls.
• It would likely cost $200 - $300.
• It's a life skill that i would never have.

This is only one of many bits that i have on my to do list but with the scarcity of tradesmen in the country these days people are going to have no other choice but to fix things themselves.

The cost and availability will leave them with no other option.

Especially with the circular economy becoming such a big deal it's going to be important for people to make items last longer and patch things together like in the old days.

Furniture, clothes, buildings, tools.

The days of cheap throwaway items is going to become a negative as people are more and more focused on sustainability. Especially if these cheap foreign items are no longer a cheap alternative.

Personally i think that people buy way too much cheap unnecessary crap so i would welcome a return to simpler times where we focused on the important things instead of what we can buy and fill the house with.

I might even have to learn a bit of sewing myself and add a new skill to the set.

Posted Using INLEO