Future of work – Reskilling, upskilling, cross skilling and life long learning investments
by Etienne Pretorius
With labour markets in flux from the fallout of the pandemic, technological shifts and the green transition, up to 1 billion people will need reskilling, training and lifelong learning by 2030.
Davos 2022 WEF Speakers: Saadia Zahidi, Rana Foroohar, Robert E. Moritz, Lady Mariéme Jamme, Salil S. Parekh, Jeff Maggioncalda, Najla Bouden Accelerating the Reskilling Revolution Accessed at https://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2022/sessions/accelerating-the-reskilling-revolution-b16cab4594 Accessed on 23 May 2022
How many people in your network have returned to school to study something? Upskilling is an activity to re-educate or develop an existing skillset or offering, be it something new in their career or just a development of existing skillsets.
Lifelong learning is the use of both formal and informal learning opportunities throughout a persons life in pursuit of continuous development and improvement of the knowledge and skills. Life long learning has been a buzzword passed around for a while now.
The trick is now to anticipate those skills required in the future. We have seen how dramatically global events can change things. This can even create new roles that never existed before, and end the need for roles that have been around for a long time. Anticipating these change in trends is not always possible, however, it is possible to pursue readiness as far as possible. Bernard Marr in his book Future Skills list the following skills and competencies needed to succeed in a digital world:
- Digital Literacy
- Data Literacy
- Technical Skills
- Digital Threat Awareness
- Critical Thinking
- Judgment and Complex Decision-Making
- Emotional Intelligence and Empathy
- Creativity
- Collaboration and Working in Teams
- Interpersonal Communication
- Working in Gigs
- Adaptability and Flexibility
- Cultural Intelligence and Diversity Consciousness
- Ethical Awareness
- Leadership Skills
- Brand of “You” and Networking
- Time Management
- Curiosity and Continual Learning
- Embracing and Celebrating Change
- Looking After Yourself
Job requirements have highlighted a need for new/developed these skillsets and more e.g.: critical thinking, problem solving, empathy. Where these were previously considered “soft skills” they now need to be present as fundamental. Previously the academic process was criticised as being archaic and still designed to serve in the Industrial Revolution era. The education sector has begun to serve with improvements focused on compassion, inventiveness, the ability to interpret peoples emotions correctly. As the next generations enter the job market they might lack the sophistication of human foundational skills that will be crucial to their future success and might well need specific upskilling around these core human skills. Foundational skills can normally only be learnt by repetition and practice rather unlike many cognitive and technical skills. This means the method of learning / teaching has had to change.
Over the last couple of years remote work has become a necessity and managers have struggled to orientate. The manager who was participative and empathetic was more successful leading their teams than the directive and task driven manager. It is critical to get middle and senior managers trained and have them re-orientate their leadership style along a more coaching mindset, as an example. This type of activity is a critical component in providing direction for the rest of the company. Coaching skills have been sort after as a critical skill investment to support a manager orientate in terms of the the new era and future of work.
Lynda Gratton in her book Redesigning Work suggests actions using the pivotal role of good managers:
- Consider your narrative of managers in the company. If the assumption is that they are the ‘permafrost’, is it time to re-evaluate their contribution, to rename and to create a strong community across managers?
- Take a look at the architecture of the role. Would it make sense to split it into those tasks around work scheduling and those that focus on people?
- Do you need to uplift the digital agenda in support of managers? Are you collecting sufficient data and experimenting enough with AI? Have you considered the behavioural nudges that could support managers?
- Are you devoting sufficient resources to upskilling managers in crucial elements such as empathy and coaching?
We have entered an era of complexity and ambiguity where the competitive advantage (Porter) becomes even more important. That competitive advantage is going to be founded in our investment of people. These people will have to function in grey areas, rather than black and white concepts and principles as in the past. They will need to begin to develop systems thinking (Senge) as they orientate with global influences and changes.