Generative AI is showing early evidence of productivity gains for software developers, but concerns persist regarding workforce disruption and deskilling. We describe our research with 21 developers at the cutting edge of using AI, summarizing 12 of their work goals we uncovered, together with 75 associated tasks and the skills & knowledge for each, illustrating how developers use AI at work. From all of these, we distilled our findings in the form of 5 insights. We found that the skills & knowledge to be a successful AI-enhanced developer are organized into four domains (using Generative AI effectively, core software engineering, adjacent engineering, and adjacent non-engineering) deployed at critical junctures throughout a 6-step task workflow. In order to "future proof" developers for this age of AI, on-the-job learning initiatives and computer science degree programs will need to target both "soft" skills and the technical skills & knowledge in all four domains to reskill, upskill and safeguard against deskilling.

For hundreds of Lancashire young people looking to launch their careers, Friday is take off day. BAE Systems, the county's biggest hi-tech employer, is then launching the search for the next generation of apprentices. The firm which employs more than 9,000 at Samlesbury and Warton is to open its apprentice application window on November 1 and will follow it up with a series of open events for people to go along and see what might be in store for the lucky 250 taken on next September. And those thinking that it will be all about nuts and bolts, grease and lathes and no place for women, could not be more wrong. In today's hi-tech era, while there is a place for those bread and butter hand and crafting skills, there is a dazzling new world of business studies, software, new manufacturing techniques, cyber security, robotics and design to choose from.