“Imagine you’re a young worker, pondering your job prospects in the economy of the future. Your grades weren’t exactly stellar, and you realize a four-year college isn’t for you. What kind of career should you look for?

“Your options are narrowing. Many traditional working-class jobs — from truck driving to administrative work to retail to tending bar — are being replaced by automated technology. The trend seems likely to accelerate. How do we ensure that the kids of tomorrow can do something useful? And how do we help today’s working class transition to the economy of the future?

“The most immediate challenge will be restructuring vocational schools to prepare students to do jobs that robots can’t and to take advantage of technology in new ways. Three skills in particular will still be useful in the new economy, as Frank Levy and Richard Murnane argued in a recent report for the research group Third Way: solving unstructured problems, working with new information and doing manual tasks that can’t easily be automated.

“So some skilled trades — plumbing, carpentry, electric work — will probably remain beyond the capabilities of robots for a long time. Likewise work in unstructured environments such as gardening or housekeeping. But many other blue-collar jobs are likely to be disrupted in the next few decades and in unexpected ways. How can vocational schools prepare their students for this kind of economy?”

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