It has been repeated to death that upskilling is key for the future economy, but perhaps nobody really realised the true economic potential of building a more highly-skilled workforce until now.
In a report released by the World Economic Forum on Jan 25, it was found that accelerated upskilling and reskilling could contribute at least US$6.5 trillion to global GDP. It would also create 5.3 million net new jobs by 2030 that will complement and augment rather than be replaced by technology.
The report, entitled Upskilling for Shared Prosperity, was co-authored with consulting firm PwC. It was released at the Davos Agenda conference on Jan 25. It notes that by preparing people for the new jobs of the fourth industrial revolution, accelerated skills training would also provide an additional 3% on average to global productivity by 2030.
“Even before Covid-19, the rise of automation and digitization was transforming global job markets, resulting in the very urgent need for large-scale upskilling and reskilling. Now, this need has become even more important,” says Bob Moritz, Global Chairman, PwC. Not only will this stimulate economic recovery from Covid-19, he argues, upskilling is also key to creating more inclusive and sustainable economies.
The report supports the work of the Reskilling Revolution platform, which was launched at the WEF Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters in January last year. The goal is to provide better education, skills and work to a billion people by 2030. It is estimated that 50 million people have already benefitted from the platform’s initiatives in its inaugural year despite the pandemic.
“Millions of jobs have been lost through the pandemic, while accelerating automation and digitization mean that many are unlikely to return,” says WEF managing director Saadia Zahidi. “Initiatives like the Reskilling Revolution hold the key to converting ideas into action and creating the necessary coordination between the public and the private sectors. There is no time to waste,” she adds.
The Reskilling Revolution works through three tracks: Forum-led initiatives that engage the public and the private sectors in joint initiatives; public-sector and multistakeholder initiatives; and company-led initiatives. It has developed country accelerators to help implement national strategies for reskilling and upskilling in 10 countries, and worked with inline learning providers like Udacity and Coursera to elevate online learning as an accepted route to employment.
In the corporate world, affiliated companies are developing new approaches to support their workforces, supply chains and communities by improving access to education, skills and better jobs. In addition to founding members like Adecco Group, LinkedIn and ManpowerGroup, it has welcomed new partner commitments from Bank of Canada, Unilever and Verizon.
Having worked on setting up systems for rapid reskilling and upskilling last year, the initiative will enter a phase of consolidation. It will look to scale up its work in its second year. It also plans to expand on its work in education, investment in job creation and establishing work standards.
A key challenge that remains, however, is the lack of a common language for skills. In the Global Skills Taxonomy: A Common Language to Unlock the Reskilling Revolution, a WEF report also released on 25 January, a common taxonomy of skills is provided to help employers, governments and learning providers better match talent to jobs and learning opportunities.
Key features of the report include specific definitions and categorisation of skills for easy adoption by the labour market. It also includes an interactive taxonomy, with definitions and recommendations for adoption to inform hiring, reskilling and redeployment in the future workplace.
