Wednesday, November 08, 2017

Health education may be more important than technical expertise for today's job market

I got to thinking that physical fitness is more important in today's job market than technical expertise. For years, there's been lots of talk, in the media, about how we need more technical education to prepare for the "jobs of the future." Technical education is important for a certain percent of the jobs. There are the folks that invent new apps for your phone or work in high places at companies like Facebook and Google. Maybe even 20% of the people, which is actually a significant number, but that still leaves 80% working at jobs like coffee barista or janitor. A little technical understanding helps, but being able to stand on one's feet without sore ankles or a bad back makes a bigger difference. Even in tech companies, like Amazon, I hear that a lot of the rank and file jobs are in the warehouse. Standing, walking and lifting. Robots are doing much of this, but people are still doing a lot of it, at least in the foreseeable future. In jobs like nursing, there's quite a bit of expertise, but having a good back for lifting patients is a big factor also.

Technology has been a boon to the consumer to be able to use things like Google at one's fingertips. On the other hand, it seems like it hasn't really revolutionized most of the job market.

Bellingham is kind of a backwater for jobs compared to places like Seattle, but it still seems like education for healthy lifestyles means more than education for high tech in most cases.

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