Future working

Central Bedfordshire has some 119,000 jobs, an increase of 14,000 since 2007. There are over 13,000 businesses at the moment in Central Bedfordshire.

People in Central Bedfordshire are still commuting for work – either to London by train, or surrounding towns and cities to work.

The way we work is changing – more people are spending less time in traditional places of work and may be working from home.

There are also new types of job emerging in Central Bedfordshire making the most of new technologies and research being undertaken in the Oxford-Cambridge Arc. If we think back 20 years ago many jobs that were common place don’t exist today. On the flip side there are also many jobs today that didn’t exist 20 years ago either like digital marketing, search engine optimisation and mobile app developers.

However, there is also growing uncertainty around the future of work. Changing technology has seen the rise of more insecure “zero-hours” contracts and increasing use of technology in activities that people traditionally did. This has always been the case, and it is expected that new types of jobs will emerge.

How can Central Bedfordshire start to harness future opportunities, and preserve the assets it has?

How might work change in the future?

• What will the work environment be like in 2050? Will we still need to travel to a place of work, or will living and working be blended together?

• How will new technologies change the types of jobs available and the skills that are needed by the future workforce?

• How will we educate and skill our people to use these technologies?