10 Job Skills You'll Need in 2020

The world of work —and the world in general—is changing. People are living longer, new technologies are emerging, and we’ve never been more globally connected. That means the skills we use now in the workplace are not necessarily the skills we’ll need in the future.

To get a sense of what skills you might want to start investing your time into developing, check out the infographic in the post. (Note: It might sound like 2020 is really far into the future, but it’s actually only about five years away.)

1. Sense Making
2. Social Intelligence
3. Novel and Adaptive Thinking
4. Cross Cultural Competency
5. Computational Thinking
6. New Media Literacy
7. Transdisciplinary
8. Design Mindset
9. Cognitive Load Management
10. Virtual Collaboration

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Photos: A list of the world's self-driving cars racing toward 2020

The world's self-driving cars, in photos

In the race to build the world's best self-driving car, traditional automakers like Toyota and Ford are being joined by tech companies like Google, Baidu, and even (it's rumored) Apple. This will have a major impact on businesses and professionals. Companies could use automated vehicles to replace corporate fleets for last-mile deliveries or transporting employees. Professionals could gain productive hours in the day by working instead of driving during their daily commute. And it is poised to drastically alter the car insurance industry by substantially lowering accidents on the road––a new report predicts that accidents will drop by 80% by 2040.

Check out TechRepublic's photo gallery for an insider's peek into the autonomous cars of the future, which will be powered by artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing. We'll update this gallery as new models emerge.

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8 things women should know about the future of work

The World Economic Forum’s Industry Gender Gap study seeks to understand the current gender gap across industries and the future impact of key disruptions on women’s employment. It does so by asking the talent and strategy executives of today’s largest employers to imagine how jobs in their industry will change up to the year 2020. If you are a woman who is planning to join, stay in or return to the workforce in the next 5 years, here’s what you need to know.

1. Most businesses want to recruit, retain and promote more women than they did before.
2. Industries that are traditionally male-dominated are even more likely than others to do so. 
3. The reasons why range from moral calling to profit motives. 
4. But gender gaps still persist in all industries.
5. The reasons are both cultural and structural. 
6. Women could be in the firing line of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
7. If you are a woman in college today, consider STEM or business courses. J
8. It’s time for companies and governments – not just working women - to lean in.

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Mind Reading Robots by 2020

On April 22nd 2010, the U.S. press was fussing over the Tea Party, illegal aliens (not the outer space kind), and Earth Day.

But in Japan, a short cryptic statement in the Nikkei, Japan's largest business newspaper, made a startling announcement about a somewhat different vision of the future -- a goal to make available commercial mind-reading devices and personal assistant bots within the next 10 years.

It's not surprising that the Japanese government and private sector would collaborate on a new initiative to develop bots with AI capable of detecting when you're hungry, cold, or in need of assistance, and electronics that can be controlled by thought alone.

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