Preparing Children for Tomorrows Jobs
A recent report by FICCI-NASSCOM along with EY published in Dec 2017; provides some fascinating insights into the jobs of the future in India. “The two key factors that challenge the nation today are, the 17 million new entrants into the workforce year on year against the 5.5 million jobs created; and by 2022, 37% of the Indian workforce would be employed in new job roles, of which 9% of India’s 600 million estimated workforce would be deployed in new jobs that do not exist today”
http://www.ey.com/in/en/newsroom/news-releases/news-ey-ficci-nasscom-and-ey-future-of-jobs-report
So what skills do today’s children require to face tomorrows job requirements? This has been a key focus of various studies in India and in fact the world over. The most detailed study was presented by the World Economic Forum, WEF, titled the Future of Jobs.
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs.pdf
To understand the skills required for the future, it was first decided that the factors impacting change in job requirements be defined. The factors impacting jobs and employability covered social, economic and technical. They were:
- Changing work environments and flexible working arrangements
- The rise of the middle class in emerging markets
- Climate change, natural resource constraints and the transition to a greener economy
- Rising geopolitical volatility
- New consumer concerns about ethical and privacy issues
- Longevity and ageing societies
- Young demographics in emerging markets
- Women’s rising aspirations and economic power
- Rapid urbanization
Once the factors impacting the changing work environment were identified, Skills were further defined as Abilities, Basic Skills, and Cross-Functional skills. They are listed below:
Based on the above an analysis was done as to a degree of the scale of Demand by the year 2020 for various skills. These are listed below:
Skills. The scale of Demand in 2020
Complex Problem Solving 36%
Social Skills. 19%
Process Skills 18%
Systems Skills 17%
Cognitive Abilities. 15%
Resource Management. 13%
Technical Skills 12%
Content Skills 10%
Physical Abilities 4%
As we can see while it is important to have strong STEM skills, it is equally important to have social, logical and visualization skills. Tomorrow's children need to have the ability to learn, adapt and relearn. In the words of Alvin Toffler: “The future belongs to those who can learn, unlearn, and relearn”
