Search Results

The New Vision for Education project examines the pressing issue of skills gaps and explores ways to address these gaps through technology. The key learnings include: education needs to address the 21st-century skills fully in order to prepare students for the evolving job market; education gaps exist between the developed and developing world, and countries vary on their respective outcome on 21st-century skill performance; technology, once integrated holistically for targeted problems, has the potential to help education better address these gaps; [and a] multistakeholder approach is required to fully realize the potential of technology to innovate education for the future.

Summary from publisher's website. Show less

This paper addresses the youth unemployment challenge in the wake of the Arab Spring to sustain the early gains from the transitions and ensure long-term positive outcomes overall. It covers social innovation and new approaches to the employment challenge, ranging from interventions in skill acquisition and career development to youth-focused microfinance and entrepreneurship programmes, as well as determinants and challenges of the current youth unemployment situation, female economic empowerment, building Arab civil society to promote economic growth, access to credit, education for employment, a paradigm shift in government, from creating jobs to enabling job creation, and recent case studies from Tunisia and Iraq.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

Ensuring the full development and appropriate deployment of half of the world's total talent pool has a vast bearing on the growth, competitiveness and future-readiness of economies and businesses worldwide. The Global Gender Gap Index was first introduced by the World Economic Forum in 2006 as a framework for capturing the magnitude of gender-based disparities and tracking their progress. The Index examines the gap between men and women in four fundamental categories (subindexes): (1) Economic participation and opportunity; (2) Educational attainment; (3) Health and survival; and (4) Political empowerment. Gender parity is fundamental to whether and how economies and societies thrive. The Global Gender Gap Report benchmarks 149 countries on their progress towards gender parity across four thematic dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. In addition, this 2018 edition studies skills gender gaps related to Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Edited excerpts from publisher's website. Show less

A significant volume of research on the theme of the future of work has emerged since the World Economic Forum published its initial report on the subject, 'The future of jobs: employment, skills and workforce strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution', early in 2016 [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 123.601]. Latest research from the World Economic Forum forecasts that by 2025, machines will perform more current work tasks than humans, compared to 71 per cent being performed by humans today. The rapid evolution of machines and algorithms in the workplace could create 133 million new roles in place of 75 million that will be displaced between now and 2022. Urgent challenges include providing reskilling opportunities, enabling remote work and building safety nets to protect at-risk workers and communities.

This report is based on a survey of chief human resources officers and top strategy executives from companies across 12 industries and 20 developed and emerging economies (which collectively account for 70 per cent of global GDP), the report finds that 54 per cent of employees of large companies would need significant re- and up-skilling in order to fully harness the growth opportunities offered by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. At the same time, just over half of the companies surveyed said they planned to reskill only those employees that are in key roles while only one third planned to reskill at-risk workers. This report is an attempt to understand the potential of new technologies to disrupt and create jobs. It also seeks to provide guidance on how to improve the quality and productivity of the current work being done by humans and how to prepare people for emerging roles.

Edited excerpts from publisher's website. Show less

This paper argues that the current moment offers a strategic win-win opportunity to proactively enhance gender equality and prevent widening gender and skills gaps. To navigate the uncertainties and new opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, all sectors need to increase diversity within their talent pools and their leadership. In order to make the most of this moment for improving business performance in high-growth sectors and supporting progress towards gender parity at all levels of employment, it is critically important to understand the barriers hindering parity across distinct sectors and job families and to harmonize strategies for effectively overcoming these hurdles. This paper explores the challenges and opportunities for enhancing gender parity in sectors likely to exhibit high growth in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and identifies key acceleration strategies by sector. Furthermore, it highlights examples of successful implementation through diverse and complimentary instruments to inspire action for rapid progress.

Edited excerpt from publisher's website. Show less

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is interacting with other socio-economic and demographic factors to create a perfect storm of business model change in all industries, resulting in major disruptions to labour markets. New categories of jobs will emerge, partly or wholly displacing others. The skill sets required in both old and new occupations will change in most industries and transform how and where people work. It may also affect female and male workers differently and transform the dynamics of the industry gender gap. [This report] aims to unpack and provide specific information on the relative magnitude of these trends by industry and geography, and on the expected time horizon for their impact to be felt on job functions, employment levels and skills.

Abstract from publisher's website. Show less

The combination of the ongoing [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19-related global recession and increased automation in the future of work has led to a large-scale disruption of the jobs and skills landscape. While previous generations of talent could expect linear career progression and engagement in formal learning that decreases over time, the workforce of the future will be required to rapidly learn and relearn new skills as reskilling, upskilling and redeployment define the 'new normal' in the future of work. Current systems of learning and signalling job-fit do not provide the agility that lifelong learners will require, and we find ourselves at a defining moment to make skills the currency of the labour market. Shifting to a skills-based system can not only provide more efficient mechanisms by which employers can identify the talent they need for business to flourish but can also create fairer labour markets where individuals are able to rapidly transition between roles; have greater access to learning opportunities; and be matched to employment through unbiased and skills-based evaluation. Yet many learning providers and employers use their own definitions and standards for skills, creating additional challenges for connecting workers to learning opportunities.

The proposed framework for a global skills taxonomy is a first step in shifting toward a skills-based labour market. We hope that the principles for implementation herein will serve to further align learning supply and demand around a common language for skills. This taxonomy focuses on the skills that we know to be of growing relevance in a fast-changing labour market, and aims to serve as a 'universal adapter' for existing taxonomies across learning supply and demand by allowing users to cross-walk their taxonomy against this framework.

Edited excerpts from publication. Show less

Since 24 February 2022, nearly 8 million refugees from Ukraine have crossed into neighbouring countries. The war is widely recognized as the worst conflict in Europe since the Second World War and adds to the estimated 32 million people worldwide who have been displaced across borders (UNHCR, 2021). At the end of 2020, the number of active conflicts around the globe reached a record high, more than at any time since 1945 (UNHCR, 2021). Investing in durable solutions in countries of origin is an imperative, yet government, business and civil society leaders must also enable economic opportunity for forcibly displaced populations, supporting those who flee while converting potential challenges into opportunities for host countries.

There is an opportunity to learn from the government policies and business practices applied in responding to the refugee crisis in Ukraine to motivate progressive and equitable solutions for the economic integration of forcibly displaced populations globally. In May 2022, the World Economic Forum launched the Refugee Employment and Employability Initiative to accelerate global support for the economic integration of refugees. This brief builds on the initiative's high-level dialogues and the lessons learned across the business community and other stakeholders from the rapid labour market integration of Ukrainian refugees.

Excerpt from publication. Show less

In 2015, the World Economic Forum published a report that focused on the pressing issue of the 21st-century skills gap and ways to address it through technology (New Vision for Education: Unlocking the Potential of Technology). In that report, we defined a set of 16 crucial proficiencies for education in the 21st century. Those skills include six 'foundational literacies', such as literacy, numeracy and scientific literacy, and 10 skills that we labelled either 'competencies' or 'character qualities'. In our current report, we follow up on our 2015 report by exploring how these competencies and character qualities do more than simply deepen 21st-century skills. Together, they lie at the heart of social and emotional learning (SEL) and are every bit as important as the foundational skills required for traditional academic learning. Although many stakeholders have defined SEL more narrowly, we believe the definition of SEL is evolving. We define SEL broadly to encompass the 10 competencies and character qualities. As is the case with traditional academic learning, technology can be invaluable at enabling SEL.

Edited excerpt from publication. Show less

Based on a survey of 56,000 youths aged 15-35 years old from six countries in the South-East Asia region, this report analyses the views of young Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) citizens on future of work, skills and technology. The survey finds that ASEAN youths are highly aware of potential disruption and challenges brought by the Fourth Industrial Revolution to the local labour markets, and they are aware they must constantly upgrade their skills. It also details their skills gap, their future career aspirations and their preferences on skills training.

Edited excerpt from publisher's website. Show less