Workforce must prepare for jobs that don’t exist yet
dubai — The fourth industrial revolution (4IR) is already upon us and to reduce the risk of displacing human workforce in a technology-dense environment, we need to up-skill, re-skill and focus on preparing the youth for a changing future. On the second day of the World Government Summit (WGS) 2019 in Dubai, Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), highlighted the opportunities and challenges the world is facing in relation to the future of the economy in the age of 4IR.
“It is exciting, challenging, full of promise. But, at the same time, it has downsides. The secret is to focus on the promise and reduce the downsides,” he said. Looking specifically at the OECD countries — countries pitted as the most developed on a global scale — Gurria revealed some alarming truths.
“Up to 14 per cent of the population today are in danger of being displaced by technology. Another third of the total workforce will be disrupted by technology in the next few years. People will feel over or under-qualified and won’t feel at ease in the tech-dense environment.”
Speaking during a session moderated by Becky Anderson from
CNN, Gurria said the questions we need to tackle are: What do we do with the population at risk of losing jobs to technology? And what do we do to prepare the youth who have to thrive in future jobs that don’t exist yet?While there are no clear answers at present, Gurria said education plays a key role.
“We need to level the playing field and deal with the responsibility to protect the quality of life, jobs, and the state.”
He said that during the “rather ominous events happening today” (referring to global trade tensions and Brexit, among others), the OECD — in a period of just six months — dropped its forecasted GDP for 2019 by 0.5 per cent.
“About six months ago, we predicted that by the same period this year, the GDP would have grown by four per cent, but now we are saying 3.5 per cent. Why did we shave off that half a per cent? Mainly because of trade tensions.”
By doing that, the OECD confirmed that the global economy is in a “slowdown”, Gurria said.
“What changed in those six months? Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Pressure on trade, particularly. People and organisations invest to produce, people and organisations produce to sell. If you don’t think you can sell, then what happens is you don’t invest. If you don’t invest, the GDP suffers. Investment is the seed of tomorrow’s growth. If you defer investment, you defer growth,” he said.