Workplace accommodations for employees with disabilities in Canada, 2017

Anticipating and preparing for the impact of digital on the workforce is urgent, and just as critical to Accenture’s business as it is to our corporate citizenship initiative, Skills to Succeed. When we launched Skills to Succeed in 2010, the global economy was emerging from a recession characterized by high unemployment rates in many countries, particularly among youth. Since launching Skills to Succeed, Accenture has built relationships with an international network of more than 500 nonprofit organizations and other ecosystem partners who are closing skills and employment gaps for vulnerable and marginalized people around the world. Together we have equipped over 1.7 million people with the skills to get a job or build a business. We have also conducted and disseminated research that translates practitioner know-how into evidence-based insights about what works to improve the collective performance of the Skills to Succeed network. When we look at the world today and five to 10 years into the future, we see a different picture from the backdrop against which Skills to Succeed was created. The rapid pace and scale of technological change and global flows of information, among other forces, are disrupting labor markets and fundamentally altering the future of work. While these shifts may create economic growth, new jobs and flexible work, they may also lead to the automation of routine, manual roles. The ability to seize these opportunities and manage potential obstacles, however, is not evenly distributed.1 Vulnerable and marginalized populations could face a ‘double disadvantage’ in the future, due to a lack of awareness of or means to adapt to these changes.