'Children should be prepared to work until 100 years'

Schools should prepare kids for a future where the working age may reach 100 years and people may have to adapt to a variety of jobs to make ends meet, an Indian-origin business consultant has warned.

As businesses become more automated there will be fewer jobs and many of the old occupations will be filled with robots, said Rohit Talwar, chief executive of consultancy Fast Future, at the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference in Scotland on Tuesday, The Daily Mail reported on Wednesday.

"On the one hand, we'll be living longer, on the other hand, we're not sure how people are going to earn the money to buy the goods and services that will largely be produced by smart software and robots... Will it be right to assume that everyone will still have a job," he said.

Talwar added the youngsters should be ready to have 40 jobs during their career, working "potentially up to the age of 100" and living up to the age of 120.

"Or will it be natural for 50 percent of the population to not be working... If they do have a job all the way through their career, that means they'll be working potentially up to the age of 100."

And they "might well have 40 jobs in that period in ten different careers", he added.

The next generation could survive by driving Uber taxis and renting out rooms via Airbnb or could receive a "universal basic income" from the government, he said.

He also warned that policy-makers around the world were "behind the game" in understanding how fast the world is changing.