PSA Press Release
October 30, 2003

What does the future hold for work?

The trends shaping the future direction of the workplace, and the increasingly widespread demand among 20 year old and 50 year olds alike for more meaningful work are just a taste of the issues which will be covered at the PSA’s Working the Future conference next week.

The conference will focus on how we can shape and influence the way we work in the future, with emphasis on the public sector, and will bring together leading thinkers and researchers to discuss future working trends and challenge our thinking about the world of work.

The conference will cover such issues as the changing workforce and workplace and how this will affect us; skills, education, and training and how people can prepare themselves for the future; work/life balance; ageing; and technology and globalisation.

Attendees at the conference will include key public sector organisation representatives including chief executives; overseas speakers, politicians; and academics.

The conference is being held at Victoria University from November 4-6 and is timed to coincide with PSA’s 90th birthday, the unveiling of our new Maori name, and our AGM.

Details of the overseas speakers, who will be available for media interviews, are:

Bani Dheer – Workplace futurist, academic and international speaker from Canada. A recognised expert on youth demographics. Has worked with public and private sectors to assist creating recruitment and retention strategies to target young employees. Her first book The Future of Work: How the Shift from Materialism to Meaning will Change the way we Live and Work is due out early next year.

Professor Johanna Wynn – Director, Youth Research Centre and Head of Department, Department of Education Policy and Management University of Melbourne. Researcher with extensive published work. Has identified the characteristics of the ‘new adulthood’.

Marcus Letcher – Author and strategist on the ‘changing nature of work and the skills required to manage your life’. Recently published Making Your Future Work.

Linda Kelly – Director, National Education Centre, Trades Union Congress, UK. Set up the TUC Partnership Institute – ‘forging a new working relation between unions and management’ and also set up TUC Management Centre – specialised training centre bringing together visionary trade union managers and best practice from the corporate world. Was personnel and training manager for the British Labour Party, 1993-1997. Her expertise is in initiating and implementing change within organisations.

ENDS

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