ZEW Sails into the Future of Work on the MS Wissenschaft

On 9 August 2018, the exhibition ship the MS Wissenschaft will cast anchor on the Stresemannufer in Bonn and welcome the first guests on board around midday for a press conference and tour of the exhibition entitled “Working Life of the Future”. ZEW economist Dr. Ulrich Zierahn will be on board to present the interactive touch-screen exhibit “Fit for the Job Market of the Future”, put together by the ZEW Research Department “Labour Markets, Human Resources and Social Policy”.

The exhibit tackles the question of what we as humans can still do better than machines, showing visitors to the exhibition which labour tasks have the potential to be automated, i.e. taken over by machines, and which do not. Visitors can select a common profession from a list provided on the screen and look at the various tasks and responsibilities this job usually entails. The screen will then show them which elements of the job description have the potential to be automated in the future – and which human skills will become all the more important as a result. Visitors are thus able to discover for themselves how they can best equip themselves for the labour market of tomorrow.