The Future of Jobs - time to get re-skilled
In all the hype and hoopla surrounding the H-1B visa issue in the US and the clouds of protectionism that are darkening the skies of globalization, there is one serious question that we have to ask, in every country and in every industry – where are the jobs?
There are at least two major trends that are creating this worry in the minds of all policy planners and economists today. The first is automation, not just on factory floors with robots and flexible manufacturing systems making physical interventions of workmen irrelevant but also in all knowledge processes, where Robotic Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence are combining to make the skills of humans as knowledge workers irrelevant. The second trend, which is probably related to the first is the inexorable move in all companies and even countries towards digital transformation. As companies explore the SMAC stack and get serious about Cloud, Social Media, Mobility and Analytics as the key way of the future to reach out to and engage digital natives who are the new employees and customers of the firm, the traditional ways of building information systems is fast becoming obsolete and being replaced by deployment of digital platforms. Digital platforms of the future will be built and deployed in months, powered by an approach that links them to micro-services and connect to APIs exposed by other platforms. A platform called Skills Alpha incubated by our company 5F World is already promising 30 % superior learning effectiveness and 20 % cost reduction, which would seem just what the doctor ordered for stressed CHROs.
What is the implication of these trends for jobs? Without sugar coating the pill, one has to realise that many jobs will just stop existing. In our own industry – Information Technology, the large employment in applications and infrastructure support, testing and process management offshore may dwindle to a small percentage and this trend is already visible in financial services and manufacturing. And the digital move will make many existing skills obsolete and a major re-skilling initiative will be needed to enable some of the incumbents to face new challenges. There will be opportunities in start-ups of course with companies who are building “digital attacker” solutions but the large traditional opportunities are definitely under threat.
In a recent study done by NASSCOM and BCG, it became very clear that many of the job families of the future will rest on the push of digital technologies and the push for new touch points demanded by customers and employees as they manage their own digital journeys. For the young job seeker in India as well as their counterparts in the US Europe China and elsewhere in the world, the ability to understand new career opportunities, assess their own skills gaps and set off on a learning journey that readies them for the future will be essential. Which is why we should worry less about who is waiting in a different industry or even a foreign country to take our jobs away and address head on if we and our colleagues are going to be ready for the future in terms of skills and competence. The future of jobs and the future of our economies are linked to this and we need to address the re-skilling challenge with renewed vigor to build a better future!
Dr. Ganesh Natarajan is Chairman of 5F World and NASSCOM Foundation
Data Delivery Manager | Data Analytics Consultant
5yI agree. Just to add something that also need to be done is "Technology that empowers a large sector like Business, people, environment, resource will overtake the rest". Hence our skills also should have that empowerment factor while re-skilling.
SELF EMPLOYED
7ySubstandard article. The author has not presented his facts clearly . While he talks about reskilling there are organisations and employees who are going through a continous education process and upgrading on new technologies. People who claim to be in leadership roles need to be prescise in communicating and presenting ideas clearly than becoming a laughing stock.
Technical Program manager
8yI know layoff is ugly truth and understand skill development is continuous learning cycle.But, I think HRD,Nasscom and other bodies should have analyzed this trend and taken timely action in past in nations interest to come up with new curriculum needs in school and colleges for new fresher task force to come. There is protectionism across the countries to retain jobs within borders. But,same time it is set back to globalized economies due to cost and political distress. In India, we often get new job roles when western world is in shortfall for skills and looking for cheaper Our learning and development system is not so agile to fulfill this demand and they can't even do predictive analysis on what skills people would need in next 5 years down the line. It's very sorrowful that there will be mass lay off and govt will be unable to produce job opportunities for these impacted people immediately. To make things even worst we will have new freshers task force joining these unemployed folks. Sad 2 years ahead until next general election, have to wait for new reforms in IT.
Bringing People Together & a Storyteller, Ex-Korn Ferry, Ex Deutsche Bank, Ex Fiserv Inc., Ex-Persistent Systems, Ex-Mahindra British Telecom
8ySir, Agree 100% with you on the last line "The future of jobs and the future of our economies are linked to this and we need to address the re-skilling challenge with renewed vigor to build a better future! Investing time in re-skilling or self learning is to sustaining & continue to exist. In IT world - Technical career path will exist as disruptive technology taking its own place everyday. Today it is Machine Learning, tomorrow is for Artificial Intelligence and future is Virtual Reality so one has to think and invest what next.....for the future in terms of skills and competence.