When the horse chariots were going out of vogue with the advent of the automobile, the farmers that had shunned farming to move to cities earlier as chariot drivers had two options in front of them– either reskill to become chauffeurs or give up their dream of city life and go back to their villages and farming (in a hope that at least that will not change).
Lessons to take away:
- Cliche but true – the only thing constant in this world is change
- Big dreams and progress demand new learning – constantly
- Soft skills, self-awareness, and critical or ab initio (first principle) thinking are a must, and
- The need to be adaptable and resilient
The common thread in the lessons is learning. And not everything can be learnt by oneself, for instance, thermite welding. Societies should provide upskilling and cross-skilling options to the willing, and at a competitive or affordable cost; and build institutions well equipped to train the workforce for the future.
Well-equipped here means the facility is technically adequate and the trainers have the right training skills, are passionate about their subject, and sport an uncompromising attitude.
We need to get this right; here we are talking about the learning needs of a normal person on the street and not necessarily a genius or an inventor. Most often the latter are the ones whose hyper innovations disrupt the current way of living and necessitate reskilling.
Also Read: Monk’s Hill Ventures head of talent’s guide to startup jobs search in Singapore
This era of hyper innovation where technology innovations and startups are encouraged like never before, paving the way to singularity (first coined by John von Neumann) faster than expected. This means that the disruptions to the way we live are going to be more frequent and profound.
And the consequent rapidly evolving situation leaves us with the only option of reskilling more often than ever before if only to stay relevant.
As it is difficult to predict future technologies, no disrespect to technology futurists like Ray Kurzweil (whom I religiously follow), the average person on the street will require to be a lot more adaptable and need a reliable place to turn to for reskilling.
This presents a great opportunity for the skills-development agencies in countries with vibrant economies and industries. The skills-development agencies, irrespective of whether they are public or privately run, require agility to add contemporary facilities and skill up their own instructors.
The instructors themselves have to learn from either the inventors or early adopters who develop the training content and run the T3P (Train the Trainer) Program for the accurate flow of knowledge downstream.
A typical skills acquisition chain would be as follows: Inventors/early adopters develop instruction manuals or train the trainer programs > Skill and knowledge upgrade of trainers > Students and practising engineers get trained by the trainers
Also Read: Why there is no better time to upskill than this COVID-19 crisis
Governments all over are encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation by creating mechanisms aligned to their specific economic environments that can contribute through the primary revenue sectors to the GDP.
For innovation to thrive it needs a functional learning ecosystem, and the governments are racing to create a robust framework involving multiple stakeholders, from government skilling agencies to private organisations, schools of lower and higher education, and partnering with technology giants.
Within the technology space where the innovations pace faster, the trainers and the training institutions need to continuously match the rate of upskilling their own teaching staff. In cases where the need for physical infrastructure is minimal, say a laptop and a good internet connection, the skilling entities should equip themselves to provide online courses and exams.
This could save a considerable amount of commute time, as well as reduce inconvenience and costs, and make those learning more productive. Online training is one of the positive fallouts of the ongoing pandemic. Early trends show a nine-fold increase for learners accessing online learning through government programs in certain countries.
The pandemic has also laid bare the lack of mechanisms to support workers through mid-career transitions and to ensure worker well-being and livelihoods amidst disruptions. Possibly a fundamental reform, in the way education and training systems operate today, and in how they interact with labour market policies and business approaches to reskilling, is needed.
It is interesting to note how certain countries are quickly and effectively responding to the unfolding situation. For instance, the Danish Ministry of Employment has introduced several measures aimed at providing additional opportunities for upskilling and job-focused education to workers laid off due to the pandemic.
Also Read: Workers are switching jobs now more than ever. Why upskilling matters most post-pandemic
Under this scheme, both skilled and unskilled workers who pursue a vocational education are being provided with 110 per cent of their usual unemployment benefits. France responded by creating individual skills account with an integrated mobile application dedicated to vocational training and lifelong learning.
Under this scheme, 28 million eligible full- and part-time workers, based on the skill levels, will receive between EUR500 to EUR8,000 annually to spend on upskilling and continuous learning. And Singapore responded by enhancing their Training Support Package – ETSP.
Contrary to the belief that the ongoing digitalisation and automation will take away jobs, most of the surveys show that there will be a net increase to the tune of 10 to 12 per cent job opportunities.
Remember when the horse carts went out of vogue, there wasn’t a decline, but rather more high paying jobs got created in the transportation space. We will witness a similar huge upsurge in need for newer skills with higher compensation, thus improving the wealth generation opportunities for the initiated.
While automation is going to increase and machines will prove more efficient in repetitive kind of job, they are at least a few years away from catching up, if at all they do, with the following:
- Critical / analytical thinking and innovation
- Reasoning and complex problem-solving
- Resilience and adaptability
- Creativity, curiosity, and initiative for innovation
- Emotional intelligence, leadership and social influence
- Technology innovation, programming, etc.
This clearly means humans will continue playing a key role while the machines take away the drudgery of repetitive, low value add tasks. It is imperative for people to also skill themselves up in some of the above areas, apart from learning and adapting to the new world order of man-machine interaction. Harnessing and adopting innovations through continuous learning remains the only constant.
Stay tuned for part two to learn which job fields are on the rise and jobs likely on a downtrend in terms of demand.
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Image credit: Elnur
The post Why cross-skilling is critical for jobs of the future – Part 1 appeared first on e27.
