ICT in Employment

Employment opportunities from ICT

ICT has effected employment massively in recent years and has become the forefront of the world’s business infrastructure. From this, developments to businesses and corporations have had great change with how and who runs them, and has led to either more jobs being available or job cuts. To many people, these cuts won’t apply to them depending on their type of job and role, however many are worried that the development of technology and ICT will continue to grow and unjustifiably take their jobs, due to their reliability and act of work 24/7 365 days a year.

This is present in supermarkets where self checkouts are starting to develop and become more and more popular. It provides customers with a machine that does all the necessary information for you quick and reliably. All you as the customer needs to do is scan the products through. There is a process as it go along, with it saying whether you want to pursue with cash or perhaps pay by card. It will then consider you with a clubcard or nectar card and allows you click if necessary. For many this allows people to get by quick and easy without the distractions that many can bring to this job.

Like people who work within the tills at a supermarket, other jobs will be lost with the development of ICT. These include;

·         Car park attending – With ‘pay and display’ machines now being present within car parks. The payment of a car for whatever time can now be done through machines, with a number of times being present, and this time chose based on the amount put in. E.g.-1 hour = 80p, 2 hours = £1.40 etc.

·         Checking of product control – Checking of products through sampling can now be done through machines that will check the product with greater detail a lot faster.

However, this isn’t to say job opportunities haven’t come from the development of ICT. These include;

·         Software engineers – These people provide the computer science principles to a product or design. This chain of work would be needed for all types of software, and would be needed if a new type were to become available. E.g.-computer games.

·         Programmers – Needs to write the information that will help function and program the product.

·         System analyst – people which produce information, research and design for an upcoming system which will help the development process of it.

As well as new jobs being available for others, or perhaps people unemployed, current staff will need to be trained for use of the product. From here these basic skills of a general employee will be increased and provide them with greater ICT knowledge that will look impressive on a CV. Furthermore, this may make these employee candidates for promotional jobs helping make more money for them.

Future employment opportunities

With ICT developing continuously, a lot of jobs are said to have been taken due to technological enhancement, and this however will continue to grow. Nonetheless, this isn’t to say that jobs in the future will dry up with basis to humans. A number of business’ don’t like the idea of a machine or ICT product being the make trafficking link between customers, and stress that it doesn’t hold a strong customer interaction between them and the store. So with this in mind, I would expect a number of business’ to not go down the strong ICT based route and hold importance to people interaction with customers.

However, for business’ that do continue down the technological route, will need people to check and embrace the products on a regular basis. This would call for job hire with certain skills. Nevertheless, you could argue that the employees being taken on board to watch the technology, are only replacing the ones make redundant from the equipment in the first place, showing no real job development.

We can expect further jobs to be taken by ICT based machines, but should not take in an negative manor. We should merely note that these jobs won’t generate massive amounts of ability, and will only be taken on in cases of extreme repetition, like working on tills.

With this in mind, it’s key that future education will ensure young people with greater and vaster knowledge of technology and its uses. This will provide them with greater and stronger fundamentals as well as make them stronger candidates for a number of jobs.

ICT in Education

ICT has massively transformed the way in which education is now taught in school, with it not only focusing on the ICT and media subjects, but for all types ranging from maths to English. This transformation happens for both the teaching side of education, as well as the student experience with various tools being present for both. This integration into schools and students everyday environment will set them up for later life, and will allow them to learn basic skill and understanding that will prepare them for later business employment.

There are a number of products ranging from hardware and software that meet these demands, and allow students to interact with products that may come back to them in later life at a more detailed level.  A number of these can now be present in a general classroom, and from personal experience do make a healthy difference. These include;

·         Computers - These are the forefront of personal learning for a student with them providing each individual, with a login and password where they can access files for editing and enhancement, as well as be open to independent research on the internet.

·         Software – This is what runs the computer. A number of programs are available for education and revision purposes for both teacher and student. Being a student give you discounts on software at certain stores.

·         Smart board – These allows teachers to interact with a board through touch sensitivity, with the view of presentations and demonstrations being taught at the forefront of the class. From here students can make notes and enhance learning techniques.

·         Projector – This is the forefront of the smart board and is what presents the screen onto the board. This is hooked up to a general computer with it then being displayed. With the aid of a projector, presentations can be shown and paused, edited with, as well as fast forwarded.

·         Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) – A growing program in schools today is VLE. This provides students with the chance to access online files and documents from home, where they can edit them and securely save. As well as this, students can keep in touch with teachers though blogs, where they can ask questions and enquire about set work.

                         This shows an example of a student using a smart board.

With the enhancement of these products, different software’s and programs are now available, where students can produce pieces of work. An example would be PowerPoint presentations. With the aid of a computer, projector and smart board, a student can make a PowerPoint presentation where they can demonstrate their interactive knowledge, as well present the information at hand. This, like mentioned previously, is what businesses’ work with, and for many is what they use to function future employment opportunities. An example of it effecting employment life is a teacher, who would use these tools to make presentation at much greater detail than a student, to present to classes.

With many schools providing vast amount of computers to students, they do have the chance to do this whether it be at home or school, night or day. Like PowerPoint, word has continued to be a frontier of school education and now allows students to write the majority of their work on a general computer. From here they can transfer to home to edit or enhance and return to school at the required date.

There are benefits for student with regards to software like these. These include;

·         Give students the chance to do work wherever they have a computer, and allow it to be more independent.

·         Gives them the chance to experience exactly what it will be like in a work environment.

·         Allows them to develop communicational and computer skills integrating them into school work.

However, there are benefits for teachers as well. These include;

·         Can mark work on a computer with students sending it to them. This stops having to mark work pages manually.

As well as benefits, negatives do come from ICT in education.  One negative is how students have replaces computers and keyboards for general writing, from this decreasing quality of handwriting, which is what’s needed in exams.

Plagiarism has also come apparent in coursework and essays, where students have cut and paste others work and claimed it to be there’s.  However, software has now come apparent that cracks downs on this and can differentiate their work with work done previously by others.

In conclusion to ICT in education, there is a number of products that have changed the way in which education brought across today. As years go by and technology increases, so will it and will soon unearth even greater educational tools for a student and teachers needs.