Two key elements are pushing us toward a workforce crisis. Rapidly advancing technology is bringing fundamental change while workers with the skills required for tomorrow’s businesses are becoming increasingly rare. These factors are widening the skills gap we know and fear.
Although companies expect to adopt these technologies—especially Artificial Intelligence (AI)—there’s a recognised need for workforce development programmes but a lack of urgency to act. Companies that are responding well to these threats are likely to gain a sustainable competitive advantage and win the war for talent.
Few companies are embracing workforce development
The growing skills gap is most noticeable in roles that relate directly to tomorrow’s major technologies, including AI, the Internet of Things (IoT), and mobile applications that are the driving force behind heightened customer expectations. India may have to forgo as much as $1.97 trillion in GDP growth promised by investment in intelligent technologies over the next decade if the country fails to bridge the skill gap. If companies don’t act to develop the workforce, we could be heading for a talent crisis. Fewer and fewer people have the skills required in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the one being powered by data, cloud, the IoT and AI. Yet, even knowing these risks, and with few obstacles to making progress in workforce development, only a limited number of companies are implementing new upskilling programmes.
Dr. Jonathan Reichental, chief information officer for the city of Palo Alto, believes we’re in the middle of the shift to the Fourth Industrial Revolution — and we’re not moving fast enough. I agree, and also share his view that we lack sufficient facilities to teach everyone the skills that will soon be in demand. As technology races ahead at an unprecedented speed, education rocks uncomfortably in its wake. We need to throw it a life ring.
Source: Financial Express
