I’m my life I have tried, sometimes successfully, not to place my bias on what sorts of jobs people might like doing. Just because I wouldn’t want to do something, it doesn’t mean others wouldn’t. I was slightly shocked therefore that I had completely forgotten the people who don’t really have much choice in the jobs they do.

Then something occurred to me. “Technology is an enabler too, it de-skills tasks”.

It sounded like a very weak attempt to win an argument. Maybe it was, but there was something more important there.

Technology is an enabler too. Why is this never part of my argument? Why is this only at best an afterthought? We spend so much time talking about productivity and profitability and efficiency. Why is using technology to deskill and democratise once complex tasks just a footnote? It is such a good argument to adopt automation and smart technologies. Not to mention, it’s a more human-centric argument.  

I admit I do not know much about learning difficulties, and I don’t know if automation and smart tech could help people who have them. This isn’t really about learning difficulties, though. How great would it be if tech could help people who do struggle? What I have come to realise is that advocacy for industrial automation is not limited to the business and the government world. The message has to speak to people who just care about jobs full stop. Technology has a long history of making us more “able” and it will continue to do so. I think it’s worth occasionally to put that front and centre of the automation and jobs conversation. I know that from now on, I plan to do so.