Understanding future skills needs: don’t get overwhelmed, get informed…

𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙛𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙠𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙨 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙨? 𝘼𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚. 𝘼𝙙𝙫𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙄 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙜𝙞𝙫𝙚.

One thing I encounter quite often is that stakeholders and people who work in economic development, employment and skills fields get concerned that they don’t understand the nuances of the precise skills needs of each sector in their local economy.

𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙖 𝙛𝙚𝙬 𝙧𝙚𝙛𝙡𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙄’𝙙 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙜𝙞𝙫𝙚:

** There’s tons of intelligence out there – on green skills, construction skills, manufacturing skills, skills for science and industry, meta skills. It pays to stay informed!

** Industries aren’t always the best lens through which to view skills needs. Occupations and job types are far more useful. Manufacturers employ accountants, marketing, and design staff as well as engineers!

** The economy is so diverse, you can’t hope to predict nor meet every skills need. You can predict some, but not all.

** Employers don’t always know what their skills need are – so how could they tell you? employer surveys over the past two decades confirm that only 50% of firms have business plans, and only 40% have HR or training plans.

** One of the main roles of the public sector is to ensure the entry level employees can be trained and moulded by employers into what they want. Individuals can also explore and invest in their own training; and occasionally to address critical skills gaps for strategic industries.

** Beware of future industries where we don’t know enough to guarantee they will be a big think, or predict skills. For example – Hydrogen energy, hyped so much, we have no real idea of how it will be commercially deployed, or where and for what use. It is looking increasingly expensive and riddled with technical and engineering challenges. We could say the same for AI – if we don’t know how it will create commercial value or an economic return yet, we can’t predict how this will affect skills demand.

𝘼𝙙𝙫𝙞𝙘𝙚 – 𝙎𝙏𝙀𝙈, 𝙙𝙞𝙜𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙡, 𝙈𝙀𝙏𝘼 𝙨𝙠𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙤𝙢𝙮

All the reports about future skills needs for climate change, green industries, digitalisation, AI and tech point to the need for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths), digital and ICT, and meta (soft) skills.

So my advice would be – if you don’t know if you are providing sufficient STEM, digital and Meta skills at entry level – then start there, and also consider how you might improve these skills amongst the existing workforce.

📗 Folks this is all to be found in some very accessible, fantastic reports and publications – have you read them? links below in the comments – no excuses! 😇