Half of the world’s workforce is going back to school (like it or not).
Last week, I had the privilege of representing Skills Matter at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions (Or Summer Davos), in Tianjin, China.
Besides getting a ring-side seat and in-depth look at the future of event management, there were a few other things I took away from Summer Davos.
1. China is determined to lead this race
Data collection and processing through advanced technologies has become the latest race in tech. China has always known this and has engineered itself to be in the best position to win. The country’s population accounts for nearly 20 per cent (1.3 billion) of earth’s 7.7 billion people*, and this huge dataset has become increasingly valuable as new advanced technologies are applied to it.
Premier of the State Council, Li Keqiang, addressing an auditorium packed with 2,500 business leaders, leaned on growth and innovation as the pillars of China’s economic future (and in turn, the world’s):
“We are now seeing an encouraging shift from traditional drivers of growth to new ones…In this process, new industries, new forms of business and new models have played a key role in keeping China’s economic performance stable.”
With China-centric giants like Tencent and Alibaba both entering the $500 billion club, free market thinking seemed to underpin Premier Li Keqiang’s comments at the forum.
“We will more proactively leverage fiscal policy by further cutting taxes and fees,” he assured the auditorium, “in order to reduce the burden on companies and stimulate the market.”
These sentiments extended to the international community, promising greater access and freedom for foreign business.
“All companies, be they Chinese or foreign-owned, will be treated as equals,” Li commented. “We will also create a better business environment and expand market access to foreign-owned companies … so they can compete on a level playing field in the Chinese market.”
These comments are sure to attract new tech companies that have set their focus on data. And as for any concern they may have in providing China with access?
“Any theft of intellectual property rights, be it a Chinese company or a foreign company, ” Li warned, “will be dealt with seriously, with doubled or even tripled and unaffordable penalties.”
2. Trade dispute or talent dispute?
With western headlines focused on US short term trade imbalances, an unnoticed dispute is going to arise in this new tech-driven global economy: the battle to attract and develop the best talent that fuels tech innovations.
Traditionally, the US has been able to attract, through its VC-backed start-ups and Ivy League institutions, some of the brightest minds. However, I wonder what is going to happen as Chinese-backed start-ups attract even more capital and intellectual property?
Chinese tech has struggled to find its place outside its borders, due to a multitude of barriers, including complex immigration policies, a US-China legacy concern (which has not been improved in the last months) and of course China’s focus on its own pool of talent and data source. It hasn’t really needed Silicon Valley so far, so why should anything change? With US tuition fees and living costs in areas such as Silicon Valley as they are, the rules of this game might change very soon.
Beyond the increasing pressures within Silicon Valley (i.e the fact that tech has some of the highest attrition rates), there is also the effect of tech itself on the jobs of tomorrow.
According to the latest World Economic Forum report titled The Future of Jobs, presented during Summer Davos: ‘75 million jobs may be displaced by a shift in the division of labour between humans and machines, while 133 million new roles may emerge that are more adapted to the new division of labour between humans, machines and algorithms.’
It looks like China is going to be in a great position to scoop up talent as this shift occurs. The report continues: ‘policy-makers, regulators and educators will need to play a fundamental role in helping those who are displaced repurpose their skills or retrain to acquire new skills and to invest heavily in the development of new agile learners in future workforces by tackling improvements to education and training systems, as well as updating labour policy’. That’s a mouthful but it matched the general tone and speeches of all the Chinese government officials present at this leaders’ forum.
3. The re-skilling imperative
By 2022, more than 50 per cent of the existing global workforce will need significant re- and upskilling, according to the above-mentioned report. During the forum, there was constant allusion to the need for training workforces for skills that arise due to the latest emerging technologies: AI and Machine Learning Specialists, Big Data Specialists, Process Automation Experts, Information Security Analysts, User Experience and Human-Machine Interaction Designers, Robotics Engineers, and Blockchain Specialists are just some of the existing roles that are growing. Don’t forget the roles that are yet to be created.
How does China achieve this re-skilling within its very structured and disciplined education system?
The need for new educational structures, allowing students and workers more flexible and continuous educational programs is just the first step of a completely new way of staying relevant in the machine-led world into which we are charging.
In China, traditional education has been famous for a very strict sense of discipline and excellence, and that might be their most difficult challenge to overcome in order to create a continuous learning ecosystem.
However, this traditional sense of discipline, far from being a hindrance, has guided China’s growth and there may be little reason to doubt that it can be used to drive a controlled but flexible and continuous educational system.
4. The opportunity for us to make things right
As someone that has been working on the creation of innovative EdTech projects for the last decade, I could not be more excited with the opportunities ahead.
In my mind, I could only hear this: “More than 50% of the global workforce is going to go back to school”. Globally, it is our role to redesign EdTech to be much more engaging, inclusive, exciting and effective than the last time humans needed to design it. The blackboard was a rudimentary and necessary piece of tech, but now students need their own, individual and virtual blackboards — shareable and specific to their needs and interests. Modular learning is taking on a new meaning with the advance of digital technologies, and is just one branch on a growing tree.
The task ahead could not be more exciting.
Where are we headed? Personalized learning experiences, hybrid offline-online programs, and continuous learning habits are going to be, in my opinion, the main drivers. The secret sauce is going to be how to mix them, and that is going to need…can you guess what?
A LOT OF DATA.
And who do we know that is leading the data race?
— Alvaro Sanmartin Cid
Co-founder & Head of Growth at Skills Matter, Co-founder at PAZ.AI
*Source: World Bank
* All images displayed are property of the World Economic Forum.
