The grave implications of skills-shortage in the technology sector, the challenges in estimating future job-skills, and the strategies to mitigate skills-shortage
In this rapidly transforming technology world, both an individual and an enterprise must have the cutting-edge skill-sets, ready in their repertoire, to stay relevant and well-ahead in the competition. Failing to do so will drag them down, ultimately knocking them out of the game. Call it the innate human reluctance, or the lack of vision, or the lack of a planned approach to upskill oneself and the workforce, the gap between the jobs to be filled and the skilled talent pool competent to fill them is widening at an alarming pace.
As per Deloitte Insights, about 2.4 million manufacturing sector positions will be left unfilled due to skills gap, between 2018 and 2028.
A skills-shortage syndrome is a condition where an aspiring individual or an enterprise is unable to keep pace with the technological transformations brought about by innovations and emerging technologies, thus remaining stagnant in a fast progressing world.
Impact of Skills-Shortage on the Economy
- The technology world sailing on the wave of innovation presents numerous market opportunities. Inculcating a sophisticated feature into a product or service requires expertise in the latest technologies. When an individual or an enterprise lacks this, they become incapable of taking advantage of the new opportunities in the market.
- The growth of a business is directly proportional to the growing customer demands and how well these demands are fulfilled. In this light, it is important to increase or at least maintain the production levels to a certain point. But the workforce faces a skill-shortage, it becomes difficult to maintain, or reach that point, thus, failing to satisfy the growing customer needs.
- The world will always be obsessed with the “something new” fad. An enterprise, no matter how successful with one product will, therefore, need to bring something new for its patrons consistently. This is only possible when that enterprise supports innovation. With a workforce short on skills in emerging technologies, supporting innovation and developing new products, both become a distant dream.
Comprehending the skills required for future jobs: The biggest challenge
The failure to plan for the future while toiling in the present ruins both the future and the present.
Have you ever wondered if the jobs we do today will exist 10 years from now? If they do, how much will they have transformed due to automation and cognitive technologies of Industry 4.0? If they don’t survive, what the jobs of the future will be like? And most importantly, what will be the skills required to perform them? Experts have estimated that about 47 per cent of the jobs that we do today will be non-existent in the next 10 years. The important thing to note here is that most of these jobs will not just evaporate, but will transition into other technologized skills with the touch of emerging technologies. The biggest challenge, therefore, would be to have a workforce of the right size having the right skill-sets trained with the right tools and technologies.
Preparing for the shifting skills & jobs
Experts have believed that the job scenario of the future can be envisioned with the help of the workforce itself. By allowing them to answer how their work has changed over time, what are the skills required in the job market today, what are the tools and technologies they use, and how the work environment has changed over time, business leaders, policy makers, and training providers can formulate their vision and effect the changes needed to fill up the widening skills gap.
At times, a professional might be aware of the skills they need to learn to stay relevant. But due to the lack of proper planning, they fail to slot in learning in their busy schedule, and the tendency to procrastinate leads them to put the upskilling efforts on the back burner. Add to it the apprehension of whether an emerging technology would survive the test of time and remain significant in the long run, or fade away like an ephemeral tide—the trepidations suffered by the workforce are many that ultimately lead to skills-shortage becoming graver.
Technology training as a long-term strategy to mitigate skills-shortage
A professional technology training provider can mitigate the challenges mentioned above that aspiring individuals and corporate workforce often face while deciding to upskill. With industry veterans as trainers who have years of experience under their belt, these training providers formulate courses and training deliverables with a futurist disposition. Their curriculum is well-planned, customizable, and systematic, keeping in mind the busy working schedule of the corporate workforce These courses also incorporate the latest updates in the technologies, and are blended with different modes of interactive learning that eliminates the monotony of a text-heavy approach.
In short, skills-shortage syndrome is inevitable due to the heavy disruption caused across industries by rapid technology innovation. But at the same time, professional technology training can be the best recourse to alleviate this epidemic now, and eliminate it completely in the long run.
