FutureWork podcast: episode one

What does the future of work look like?

That’s the key question posed in a new podcast series by The Scotsman, in partnership with Skills Development Scotland dedicated digital skills and careers website Digital World.

How will we work? Where will we work? Will the future be dominated by technology - and will robots take our jobs?

Experts and industry leaders share their insights, with Professor Heather McGregor, Executive Dean of Edinburgh Business School at Heriot Watt University saying in the first podcast: “The future of work will be unbelievably flexible. We will work in different ways and in different places. It will not be one continual line of employment.”

The first podcast also features Claire Gillespie, Digital Technologies lead for Skills Development Scotland. She sees a future where work colleagues appear in our location-free offices as holograms or avatars - and urges us to learn from the gaming industry.

Gillian Docherty, Chief Executive of The Data Lab innovation centre, says tech skills will be needed at all levels of the economy - from basic technology in the majority of jobs to highly specialized roles. Rob Huggins, a technology recruitment expert, voices fears that we don’t have enough people currently available to fill these roles.