The future is here but are we skills-ready? 

There has been considerable media and academic discussion of the so-called ‘post-Covid’ industry skills required as we begin to recover from the most fraught economic, social and health disaster in our recent memories. Most of these predictions are speculative rather than evidence-based however, and fail to factor in the other significant and arguably longer-term phenomenon which is inextricably linked with the impact of COVID-19 – the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, which will not only demand new skills emphases, new educational and training approaches, new forms of workplaces and new employment arrangements, but potentially also the transformation of our industry landscape. As evidence of the latter point, there are clear indications that manufacturing, retail, tourism and hospitality, finance and investment, transport and logistics and agriculture, mining and construction sectors, amongst many others, which were already poised to adopt artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies in order to increase production and efficiency, reduce labour costs and develop more creative and innovative operational solutions.

The pandemic has only given these sectors a significant catalyst for the more rapid implementation of these emerging technologies with considerable disruption to labour markets in both local and global industry environments. As we concluded in our recent research project on the impact of AI on Australian industry, ‘these technologies have the potential to impact on all sectors internally and to break down the barriers between sectors…routine jobs that have limited autonomy and independent decision-making are likely to be replaced by technology’1.

New Skills?
With respect to the new skills requirements demanded to the confluence of these new technologies and COVID-19, our research sample suggested that the priority areas will be IT skills, soft skills and ‘elementary skills such as verbal and written communication, and teamworking’.It might be cynically suggested that the latter group of skills deficiencies, whilst being heightened by the working-from-home restrictions imposed by the pandemic, actually derive from a combination of the declining quality of secondary (and higher education) and the impact of older technologies such as mobile phones, tablets and social media on the soft skills of especially (but not only) younger employees.Ironically, the replacement of many entry-level customer service positions with robots and chatbots, notably in retail and hospitality sectors, has significantly reduced opportunities for this cohort to gain work experience and the associated soft skills, and has escalated during the pandemic. 

But what skills do others see as particularly crucial following the pandemic? A brief survey of scholarly and grey literature reveals three key skills domains – namely, technical/digital skills; creativity and innovation skills; and personal/soft qualities and skills. Drilling down further into these skills domains, many observers suggest that the technical/digital skills required post-COVID include at the lower end – data literacy, digital and coding, information security and digital ‘understanding’- and at the higher end – digital leadership, critical thinking, data analysis and governance skills. With respect to broad creativity and innovation skills, attitudes and mindsets, such qualities include flexibility and adaptability, resilience, emotional intelligence, curiosity and openness to learning/growth mindsets and logical thinking. Specific skills applications of these broad aspirations cascade into such areas as face-to-face communication and presentation capabilities, the ability to lead and participate in team projects and leadership roles, and a deep understanding of local and global challenges and the capacity to problem-solve and design practical resolutions.

New solutions & responsibilities
As implied throughout this piece, COVID-19 has acted as a catalyst for societal and industrial transition from the traditional workplace with traditional skills requirements to a hybrid environment with new technologies, new challenges, new choices and new solutions. Employers want more efficient, effective and less costly production and distribution systems and processes; employees need more autonomy, more work-life balance and ongoing lifelong learning and development opportunities. Governments need to manage the expectations and needs of employers, employees, higher education and TAFE institutions, and society more broadly in response to both the pandemic and the new technologies in order to remain competitive, economically viable, and prepared for industrial transitions.

Some helpful practical new strategies as solutions to these identified new skills requirements are suggested by a 2018 World Economic Forum (WEF) – ‘investment in reskilling current employees; support for mobility and job rotation; collaboration with educational institutions; targeting female talent; attracting foreign talent and offering increased apprenticeships’.2

Or as the Cisco/Oxford Economics report (2019) suggests, our challenge is to answer the conundrum - ‘How well the stakeholders in Australia’s future can capitalise on these opportunities (COVID-19 in the short-term, and artificial intelligence in the longer-term) for the net benefit of the whole population will depend on how well it deals with the skills transition’. 3

References
1. Nankervis, A., Connell, J., Montague, A., & Burgess, J. (eds.) 2021, The Fourth Industrial Revolution: What does it mean for Australian industry? Springer Nature, Singapore, p.222.

2. World Economic Forum (WEF) 2018, The future of jobs report 2018, Geneva:WEF, cited in Nankervis et al. 2021, p. 236.

3. Cisco/Oxford Economics 2019, Technology & the future of Australian jobs: What will be the impact of AI on workers in every sector? www.cisco.com/c/dam/m/en­_au/cda/cisco-future-of-australian-jobs-report2019.pdf. Cited in Nankervis et al. 2021, p.236.