A Voyage into the Future of Work: MS Wissenschaft Goes on Tour with ZEW Exhibit on Board

It’s “anchors aweigh” for the MS Wissenschaft on 15 May 2018 in Berlin. This year, the Centre for European Economic Research’s (ZEW) interactive exhibit “Fit for the job market of the future” is on board as part of a tour across Germany and Austria running until early October.

Are robots going to take our jobs? Do machines make better employees? How can I make myself fit for the job market of the future? These are some of the issues addressed by the interactive exhibit created by the ZEW Research Department “Labour Markets, Human Resources and Social Policy”, which will be on board the floating exhibition MS Wissenschaft as part of “Science Year 2018 – Working Life of the Future”. The interactive screen shows visitors at the exhibition which labour tasks have the potential to be automated, i.e. taken over by machines, and which do not.

An opportunity rather than a threat

The exhibit engages in the current public debate over how work is changing. Increasingly we hear fears expressed that digitalisation and automation pose a threat to many of our jobs. However, ZEW’s labour market economists have found evidence that this threat is much smaller than many presume. “Digitalisation doesn’t mean that entire professions will disappear, just that individual job descriptions will change. Our exhibit offers a fun way for guests on board the MS Wissenschaft to see for themselves how having qualifications, assuming different responsibilities or gaining new skills can make them fit for the job market of the future,” says ZEW economist Dr. Ulrich Zierahn.

Calling in at ZEW’s home port

The MS Wissenschaft will also be anchored in Mannheim from 23 to 25 August 2018 on the Rhine Promenade at the Lindenhof. The floating exhibition is the centrepiece of the “Science Year 2018 – Working Life of the Future”, an initiative launched by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and Wissenschaft im Dialog (Science in Dialogue, WiD). Visitors on board the ship MS Wissenschaft will have the chance to discover how the latest technologies can change or improve our working life and what skill sets are going to be in high demand on the job market of tomorrow.

The exhibition is targeted at schools, young people and families in particular and is suitable for children ages 12 and up. Entry to the exhibition is free. The exhibition is open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. A programme of free film screenings, workshops and podium discussions will also be running on deck. School groups can visit the ship from 9 a.m. by registering in advance via the online booking system.

For more information on the MS Wissenschaft and Science Year 2018, please visit www.ms-wissenschaft.de and https://www.wissenschaftsjahr.de/2018

For more information please contact

Dr. Ulrich Zierahn Phone: +49 (0)621/1235-280, E-mail ulrich.zierahn@zew.de