The requirements for being a part of the workforce and navigating it throughout our working lives have increased substantially in the last fifty years. The increase in requirements have changed for a number of reasons: technology, globalization and the rising demand for more goods. Technology may be one of the largest factors, what required workers 30-40 years ago, now can be done with computer programmed machines. The machines and computer processes have eliminated a large number of jobs and as technology continues to improve it is likely that more manual labor jobs will be eliminated.
Another challenge of the modern day workspace is how rapidly techniques and processes are changing. Many processes and skills in the workplace used to last workers a lifetime or close to it. Nowadays, a set of skills may last a worker at most ten years, and the need to be reinventing yourself or learning new skills is now omnipresent. For workers in this era, it can feel exhausting and challenging because of the need to always learn new skills. Working at one company for a long time is also very likely today. Adults in their 20s and early 30s are likely to have five jobs; whereas their parents probably had no more than two or three jobs.
The next challenge workers face in the modern economy is globalization and competition from abroad. There are no longer only a few countries with enough education and technology to be the industrial hubs of the world. Most countries which want to develop a manufacturing sector, or an IT sector or anything else need to simply put their mind to it and it can be achieved. This has made keeping educated and capable workers in a country far more important now than ever before. In Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries a brain drain of female talent has been happening for some time because of the discrimination against women in the workplace.
This is changing though because of women like Su-ad Yousif, Bodour Al Tamimi and Laila Al Hassan. They came together to form the group Qyiadiyat in Saudi Arabia as a platform for career oriented women to network with. They have used the group to network with business leaders like Hussain Al Nowais and many others to help bring attention to themselves and their abilities. As views in Saudi Arabia continue to change, more women are slowly finding their way into the workplace. This is good for Saudi Arabia because they will lose less high educated and ambitious women to jobs overseas which is damaging to their economy.