Megatrends like climate change, sustainable development, urbanisation, globalisation and technological change are bringing major transformations to our lives on local, regional and global scales. Climate change and its impact on the environment and our health can have tremendous consequences all around the world as has already been seen through the droughts, fires and extreme weather events in recent years (European Commission, 2022). A new virus in a distant Chinese city became a pandemic in just a couple of months, wreaking havoc on the people and the economies of all the countries in the world for years. In order to avoid transmission of the virus, universities and businesses alike transitioned to working from home - remote work with technologies enabling online meetings. The pandemic accelerated existing trends and adoption of new technologies all around the world (McKinsey & Company, 2022). As face-to-face meeting became impossible for a while, online meetings thrived as people learned to connect with collaboration partners across the world in a new format and online events and webinars became the ‘new normal’. Due to the pandemic-induced changes to work culture and changing values, hybrid work is very well adopted across many industries (Euromonitor, 2022). Thanks to the onset of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the effects of COVID-19 on remote and hybrid work, the future of work is already here, at least for the online white-collar workforce (Euromonitor, 2022; World Economic Forum, 2020). Such rapid technological and behavioural change can happen again on a different front, due to different reasons. We have to be willing to accept change as a constant in our lives. Change is also relevant to the careers of graduates since they will most likely have several jobs during their careers. Technological change is rapid, and jobs become redundant while new types of jobs are constantly being created. In a world where machines can replace people since they can complete many tasks more efficiently than humans, it is vital to retrain, upskill and reskill employees for the jobs of tomorrow. Machines and robots powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) will not take over the world completely however, the work that humans take on however will have to evolve. Many recent graduates lack confidence about the value of their education and their work readiness (Nietzel, 2022). Many circumstances, e.g., rising inflation, resignations and upcoming recession, have made graduates question their education and career choices. 2.1. Change: Transformation of Work due to COVID-19 and Technological Acceleration 14
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