Building skills of the future workforce
Technologies are transforming the world of work. While some jobs will disappear, others will be created. With the right skills, youth can seize opportunities for quality employment.
World Youth Skills Day is celebrated globally on July 15 which was set by the UN General Assembly in 2014. The goal of the World Youth Skills Day is to promote better socio-economic conditions for today’s youth and to address the challenges of unemployment and under-employment.
The day seeks to generate greater awareness of and discussion on the importance of technical, vocational education, and training and the development of other skills – such as emotional intelligence, complex problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, teamwork and collaboration – relevant to both local and global economies. It is hoped that this will contribute to reducing unemployment and under-employment among youth globally.
There has been a great deal of focus lately on how the digital economy is rapidly transforming the employment landscape. This is happening across industries, including financial services, health, entertainment, transportation, and information and communication technologies. Millions of jobs requiring advanced digital skills will be created in the coming decade, but many countries are projecting a shortfall of skilled workers to fill these jobs. The growth potential of the digital economy presents an opportunity for tackling the growing youth employment challenge.
Recent surveys have shown that Americans express more worry than enthusiasm about coming developments in automation: from driverless vehicles to a world in which machines perform many jobs currently done by humans. In a Pew Research report, “Automation in Everyday Life”, found that 72% of Americans are very or somewhat worried about a future where robots and computers are capable of performing many human jobs.
Furthermore, 33% of Americans were enthusiastic about the prospect and 6% reported that they have already been impacted by automation in the form of lost jobs and/or wages. The Pew study also discovered that young Americans are especially likely to have been impacted by workforce automation.
A recent OECD Employment Outlook 2018 suggested that the way to help workers make the most of ongoing technological advances is to effectively raise their skills. It is therefore crucial that countries develop high quality education and training services and provide accessible learning opportunities while developing systems for anticipating skill demands.
The ILO has a long-standing commitment to promote decent work for youth. Supported by a unique tripartite structure that brings together the key players in the world of work, ILO’s activities on youth employment have used advocacy, knowledge development and dissemination, policy and technical advice and capacity building services to alert governments, businesses and workers to these issues.
In June last year, the ILO and the ITU launched a campaign to bridge the current skills gap. The goal of the campaign is to equip five million young people with digital skills – both basic and advanced – by 2030. This will be achieved by mainstreaming digital skills into school curricula, establishing comprehensive on-the-job training systems and mobilizing job creators in the public and private sector to employ young people in digital-centric jobs. There will also be a strong focus on fostering youth-led digital entrepreneurship.
Previous ILO research highlighted the need to build policy coherence across employment, skills, economic development and innovation policies, and underline the importance of ensuring that skills utilisation is built into policy development thinking and implementation.
Another report, featuring results from the ILO's Skills for Trade and Economic Diversification programme, showed that appropriate skills development policies are key to help firms participate in trade, and also to help workers find good jobs. Moreover, the establishment of the Global Commission on the Future of Work in August 2017 marked the start of the second phase of ILO’s Future of Work Centenary initiative, providing an overview of skills requirements for the future of work and considers how skills development systems might be transformed to meet these needs.
In the United States, the federal government, including the Department of Labor, sponsor a wide variety of job training and job placement assistance programs for Americans youth. The Department's Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is the primary agency responsible for such programs. Youth Programs of the Employment & Training Administration provides up-to-date information about the Department's youth programs, initiatives and directives, legislation and regulations, and other information working to positively impact the youth in the U.S.
There is a growing urgency to develop better and more adaptable learning platforms that deliver the foundational skills that allow people to embrace changing technological opportunities as well as facilitate dynamic learning over the life cycle which ensures that people keep pace with digitalization and other factors of change.
Young people will increasingly be faced with challenges to keep their range of skills current as well as to have availability to skills development systems available – which require changes and investment from government and enterprises and help future workers find a path to decent work.
The day seeks to generate greater awareness of and discussion on the importance of technical, vocational education, and training and the development of other skills – such as emotional intelligence, complex problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, teamwork and collaboration – relevant to both local and global economies. It is hoped that this will contribute to reducing unemployment and under-employment among youth globally.
There has been a great deal of focus lately on how the digital economy is rapidly transforming the employment landscape. This is happening across industries, including financial services, health, entertainment, transportation, and information and communication technologies. Millions of jobs requiring advanced digital skills will be created in the coming decade, but many countries are projecting a shortfall of skilled workers to fill these jobs. The growth potential of the digital economy presents an opportunity for tackling the growing youth employment challenge.
Recent surveys have shown that Americans express more worry than enthusiasm about coming developments in automation: from driverless vehicles to a world in which machines perform many jobs currently done by humans. In a Pew Research report, “Automation in Everyday Life”, found that 72% of Americans are very or somewhat worried about a future where robots and computers are capable of performing many human jobs.
Furthermore, 33% of Americans were enthusiastic about the prospect and 6% reported that they have already been impacted by automation in the form of lost jobs and/or wages. The Pew study also discovered that young Americans are especially likely to have been impacted by workforce automation.
A recent OECD Employment Outlook 2018 suggested that the way to help workers make the most of ongoing technological advances is to effectively raise their skills. It is therefore crucial that countries develop high quality education and training services and provide accessible learning opportunities while developing systems for anticipating skill demands.
The ILO has a long-standing commitment to promote decent work for youth. Supported by a unique tripartite structure that brings together the key players in the world of work, ILO’s activities on youth employment have used advocacy, knowledge development and dissemination, policy and technical advice and capacity building services to alert governments, businesses and workers to these issues.
In June last year, the ILO and the ITU launched a campaign to bridge the current skills gap. The goal of the campaign is to equip five million young people with digital skills – both basic and advanced – by 2030. This will be achieved by mainstreaming digital skills into school curricula, establishing comprehensive on-the-job training systems and mobilizing job creators in the public and private sector to employ young people in digital-centric jobs. There will also be a strong focus on fostering youth-led digital entrepreneurship.
Previous ILO research highlighted the need to build policy coherence across employment, skills, economic development and innovation policies, and underline the importance of ensuring that skills utilisation is built into policy development thinking and implementation.
Another report, featuring results from the ILO's Skills for Trade and Economic Diversification programme, showed that appropriate skills development policies are key to help firms participate in trade, and also to help workers find good jobs. Moreover, the establishment of the Global Commission on the Future of Work in August 2017 marked the start of the second phase of ILO’s Future of Work Centenary initiative, providing an overview of skills requirements for the future of work and considers how skills development systems might be transformed to meet these needs.
In the United States, the federal government, including the Department of Labor, sponsor a wide variety of job training and job placement assistance programs for Americans youth. The Department's Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is the primary agency responsible for such programs. Youth Programs of the Employment & Training Administration provides up-to-date information about the Department's youth programs, initiatives and directives, legislation and regulations, and other information working to positively impact the youth in the U.S.
There is a growing urgency to develop better and more adaptable learning platforms that deliver the foundational skills that allow people to embrace changing technological opportunities as well as facilitate dynamic learning over the life cycle which ensures that people keep pace with digitalization and other factors of change.
Young people will increasingly be faced with challenges to keep their range of skills current as well as to have availability to skills development systems available – which require changes and investment from government and enterprises and help future workers find a path to decent work.