10'hottest jobs 2010+:

There is tremendous excitement about this new technological frontier. Estimates suggest that around $10 billion globally is currently being invested in nanotechnology research and this sum is set to increase rapidly.

According to the publication, Trends in Nanotechnology Weekly, profitable developments in nanotechnology are likely to be achieved within the next 5 years. Nanotechnology spans so many areas (drug development, solar energy, sensors, glues, lubricants, fuels, textiles, hard drives, computer memory and optical components) the potential for new roles is substantial.


Ubicomp technologists
There is an increasing acknowledgement of the potential for a future world where every conceivable object could become embedded with micro-processors, low cost miniature sensors and transceivers. Quite simply, everyday objects from furniture to food & drink containers would acquire the ability to sense changes in their own state and transmit this information - the fridge senses when milk is low and orders it in. Alternatively, a book could sense when the final chapter is being read and order the next volume from Amazon, via a bluetooth signal to your PC.

There remain enormous technological challenges here (relating to size and power supply) but the potential areas for research and development are so wide, we believe a growing army of ubicomp technologists will emerge over the next decade.

Bioinformatics specialists
With the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2001, the human DNA sequence provides drug developers with an inkling of the genetic foundations of diseases. However, the development of resulting drugs for treatment is a massive operation requiring the comparison of genes and their activity in healthy and diseased tissue and cells. This is resulting in a new field where biology, chemistry and information technology merge together into new roles falling under the heading of bioinformatics. Huge amounts of complex information are generated in this process, requiring next generation information technology.

Bioinformatics is expected to be particularly significant in cancer research. In 1997, the US National Cancer Institute established the Cancer Genome Anatomy Project to catalogue the DNA fingerprint of tumours. Researchers are now making huge strides toward understanding the molecular mechanics of tumour growth. Cancer biology research has reached a point of critical mass where bioinformatics will be crucial


Fuel cell technologists
The hydrogen fuel cell has been described as the next revolution in energy production. In his 2003 State of the Union address, President Bush committed tens of billions of dollars of government funding for fuel cell research. Fuel cells essentially generate electricity from hydrogen and major car manufacturers have already unveiled a range of fuel cell vehicles. There remain many challenges, concerning reducing the cost and increasing the power of fuel cells, together with the obvious changes required in the distribution network to provide hydrogen fuel.

Despite these challenges huge amounts of public and private investment are being poured into fuel cell research. The reason is simple, when one considers the enormous environmental benefits - the exhaust from a fuel cell engine is water.


Time consultancy and tasking
We live in a society where the perception (though not necessarily the reality) of being time harried is endemic and there is an increasing emphasis on the work-life balance. As people juggle work and family commitments, we envisage a substantial and growing opportunity for time consultants to undertake two key professional and practical functions; time audits and household tasking.

Professional - We envisage that in the future there will be substantial demand for personal audits of how people use their time.

Practical - With regard to household tasks, we are already seeing the emergence of companies providing comprehensive household services for time constrained single and double income households. These services could be expected to include finding hotels and booking holidays, organising gardeners, cleaners and food shopping, advising on the best plumbers and electricians and organising any repair work they might undertake.


Longevity consultants
The demand for longevity consultants is likely to grow rapidly over the coming decades. Longevity consultants will provide professional advice to an ageing population. This advice will span health, financial and lifestyle pursuits. Growth in demand for specialised longevity consultants will be driven by two parallel developments: (1) People are living longer. (2) The numbers of older people are increasing.

The median age of the population is expected to increase from 38 in 2001 to 45 in 2040. For the first time in history we are entering an era when people can reasonably expect to spend two decades in retirement prior to death. Over the next half century life expectancy for UK males is expected to rise from 75.7 to 80 and for females from 80.4 to 84.1 (Government Actuary Department figures).

United Nations projections show the rising future influence of older age cohorts will be considerable. The UK old age dependency ratio (those aged 65 years and over as a ratio of those aged between 15 and 64) will rise from 24% in 2000 to 35% in 2025 and 47% in 2050. Over the next decade the ratio will rise around 3%. As a result, there is likely to be a sharp increase in demand for advice from 'groovy greys' wanting to make the most of their time and maximise their longevity.


Personal dieticians and trainers
The positive links between exercise and diet and health are obvious. In an age of rising affluence we are seeing significant growth in demand for personal dieticians and trainers - people who 'know your body better than you know it yourself' and can advise on the optimum diet and fitness regime, based on your personal requirements. More and more personal lifestyle gurus will emerge, encouraged by individualist attitudes and facilitated by rising affluence. A trend, which was merely for the wealthy, will become much more widely spread in the future.


Fun employees
In 2002 Easy Jet advertised in the national press for a new position as #Head of Fun#. Whilst people naturally smile at such a job, the underlying logic behind such roles is simple and compelling, aiming to boost the productivity of the workforce and reduce the costs of high staff turnover. Fun workers will not be employed to turn the office into a party venue. Instead, they will focus on how to make work more enjoyable and as a result more productive. Clearly many aspects of many jobs can be unpleasant and that is just the way work is, but fun workers will be let loose to discover ways of improving these tasks. More generally, fun workers will aim to identify interesting ways of making all aspects of our working lives more enjoyable, whilst at the same time improving the bottom-line performance of the organisation.


Global matchmakers
Matchmaking services have been in existence for a long time, but they have tended to be country based. We believe there will be an increasing trend to establish matchmaking services on a global basis. This has the obvious potential benefit of widening the 'catchment area', particularly if he/she is looking for a particular type of person.

In an era of increasing globalisation, in business and travel, cross-cultural barriers to international relationships are already declining and will decline further.


Webucation architects
The American management guru, Peter Drucker, has speculated that on-line education could become the greatest economic opportunity of the 21st century. We agree that there is enormous potential in this area. Online delivery of education can obviously reap huge potential cost savings when set against the fixed costs of a college or university campus. The secret to success will be the design of effective delivery of course material. It is here that webucation architects will be so important. Webucation architects will be teachers and lecturers with the ability to communicate and inspire learning online.