Feb 22, 2021
World Economic Forum Skills of the Future Report Summary
The World Economic Forum (WEF ) looks to the future of work and tries to predict which skills will be most important for workers, entrepreneurs, and businesses. After a survey of bosses and HR managers at the world’s leading companies, the company has published the Future of Jobs Report, which reveals the skills we will need in the future.
Instead of focusing on the future of jobs, the report focuses on the skills required for different jobs and working conditions. The Future of Work Skills 2020 report identifies the key work skills that we will need in the next 10 years and analyses the key factors that will reshape the work landscape. This detailed report examines the role of skills in creating the changes that lie ahead for the future of work and the skills that people need to remain competitive.
One skill that stands out is creativity. Creativity is a skill that even artificial intelligence can hardly replicate, and therefore it will be one of the skills that future workers will need to succeed. The report also highlights those skills that will be at the top of this list and that will be crucial in this new era. As individuals, we need to acquire a range of new skills to equip the world we work in for a future without us. The WEF has identified a few “soft skills” that are critical to future jobs, such as communication, teamwork, collaboration, creativity, self-reliance, and teamwork.
Interestingly, the future of work will be shaped not only by hard skills, but by holistic skills. They also found that human skills will be crucial to our success in the future. To make meaningful progress in saving the world, it is particularly important to focus on the fastest-growing occupations of the future.
The WEF agrees that the impact of technological and other changes is reducing existing skill levels in almost all sectors. The report acknowledges the accelerating impact of technology on US jobs, but also highlights the massive decline in other industries that are outpacing employment growth in certain industries. This, combined with the impact of technological automation on the workforce, leaves little doubt that there are several top-level skills that workers will need in the future.
The World Economic Forum predicts that the digital revolution will transform the future of work and the workplace. Just before 2022, it is estimated that more than 1.5 billion new jobs will be created in the US and other countries, but 75 million jobs are likely to be lost. The World Economic Forum also notes that instability in the workplace will transform almost half of all core skills by 2022 alone.
In the end, to meet the demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we need to create up to 100 million more jobs than projected, according to WEF, and it predicts employment will rise to 2.2 million by 2030.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
