All workers will need to adapt and learn new skills over their careers, but some skills stand the test of time. Because workers can use these skills to navigate transitions across virtually any industry, these 'transportable skills' learned in K-12 programs have lifelong value. This report examines workforce demand for five such skills taught to millions of students each year in Project Lead The Way (PLTW) PreK-12 programs: collaboration, problem-solving, critical and creative thinking, communication, and ethical reasoning and mindset. This research demonstrates the importance of providing students with insights about their transportable skills and abilities so they can hone and communicate them in the future.

The future of work is human. This inspiring insight follows Deloitte Access Economics’ analysis of changes to the nature of skills in demand since 1988, and extrapolations to 2030. From work of the hands (manual labour), to work of the head (cognitive labour), Deloitte Access Economics has identified an emerging need for work of the heart (i.e. soft skills such as judgement, resolving conflict and customer service). Indeed, as robotics and artificial intelligence change the nature of work, augmenting both work of the hands and work of the head (e.g. completing excel spreadsheets and making calculations), humans will increasingly need to attend to non-routine work of the head (i.e. generating insights) and work of the heart (i.e. collaborating with diverse teams to make complex decisions). Historically, schools, universities and workplaces have mainly focused on developing and rewarding technical skills (e.g. data analysis). Therefore, the supply for soft skills is being outstripped by the growing demand. Using Australia as a sample of our research, the key message from The path to prosperity: Why the future of work is human is that investment in more skilled, happier and more engaged people is of material benefit to economic growth and will add $36B to the Australian economy each year.

By analysing the individual journeys of 14,000 young people over ten years (from when they are 15 years old to when they turn 25) using data from the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth (LSAY) this report sheds light on new transitions to work and demonstrates that the changing nature of work is already impacting on young Australians. The report reveals that young Australians face a number of significant barriers when seeking full-time work. When we removed common activities that young people do, such as gap years and returning for further education to look more deeply at the period, we found it took on average 2.6 years to transition from leaving education to full-time work. The reality is while nearly 60 per cent of young Australians aged 25 hold a post-school qualification, 50 per cent of them are unable to secure more than 35 hours of work per week., Through comparing the journeys of young people who have secured full-time work compared to those who haven't, the report identifies four factors that can accelerate the transition from full-time education to full-time work. These are: (1) an education that builds enterprise skills; (2) being able to undertake relevant paid work experience; (3) finding employment in a sector which is growing; and (4) an optimistic mindset. The report concludes that, more than ever before, young people need access to relevant, high-quality education and learning systems that reflect and respond to their changing and diverse needs, and those of the economy.

How will work and working life in the Nordic countries change in the future? This is the question to be addressed in this project. This initial report describes the main drivers and trends expected to shape the future of work. It also reviews the main distinctions of the Nordic model and recent developments in Nordic working lives, pointing towards the kind of challenges the future of work may pose to the Nordic models. Too often, debates about the future narrowly focus on changes in technology. This report draws attention to the broader drivers and political-institutional frameworks influencing working life developments, aiming to spur debate about how the interaction of changes in demography, climate, globalization and digital technologies may influence Nordic working lives in the coming decades.

This paper reports on a search for the new foundational skills of the digital economy. How and when do evolving skills change the job market? Which skills are in demand in both digitally intensive jobs, and more broadly? Which skills retain their value over time? If such a set of emergent, critical skills exists, how do the skills interact, and what do they mean for job seekers and incumbent employees, educators, and employers?, To find out, the Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) commissioned Burning Glass Technologies to examine skills in the job market by drawing from a set of more than 150 million unique U.S. job postings, dating back to 2007. The research identified 14 skills that have become foundational in the new economy, which converge in three interrelated groups: human skills, business skills, and digital skills.

Queensland's economy, which generates prosperity and supports our quality of life, will shift into a markedly different space over the next 20 years. Technology, emerging global markets, demographics, digitisation, cultural change and other driving forces are significantly reshaping the operational landscape for Queensland businesses, governments and communities. This report explores what is at stake for Queensland in responding to this important period of rapid change and presents research findings about the potential impact on jobs, the economy and society. The report also recommends pathways to best position Queensland for the future.

Millions of jobs will be created or destroyed by technological change over the next decade. Yet the most profound — and underappreciated — trend in today’s labor market is how technology is mutating jobs into new, unexpected hybrid jobs. More and more jobs are “hybrids,” combining skill sets that never used to be found in the same job, such as marketing and statistical analysis, or design and programming. Certain skills are acting as hybridizing forces, spreading across different roles. Fully one-quarter of all occupations in the U.S. economy show strong signs of hybridization, and they are almost universally the fastest-growing and highest-paying – and also the most resistant to automation. Some of these jobs are new, some are new versions of existing jobs, but all of them pose much different challenges for workers, students, employers, and educators. Since Burning Glass Technologies first identified the hybrid trend in research for General Assembly in 2015, the pace of change has only increased, with significant implications for workers, educators, employers, and society as a whole. This trend could worsen a divide in the workforce, with some workers gaining ground in the future economy, and others – those who fail to keep up with changing skill requirements – at risk of being left behind. But, as jobs get reshaped by new skills and new technologies, there are also clear opportunities: for employers to upskill existing workers and develop more effective talent pipelines; for workers to make themselves more competitive by acquiring new skills ahead of the market; and for education institutions to deliver learning to the broader community of workers who will increasingly need to acquire new skills. Our new analysis of hybrid jobs, based on the Burning Glass database of nearly a billion current and historical job postings, finds the trend strengthening: One in eight job postings is now highly hybridized, encompassing more than 250 different occupations. Technology is an important part of this trend, but not the only driving force. Often it is the need to apply soft skills, analysis, or management to technical disciplines that creates a hybrid role. The skills that drive hybridization fall into five key skill areas, some new skills and others traditional skills being applied in new ways: Big Data and Analytics Intersection of Design and Development Sales and Customer Service Emerging Digital Technologies Evolving Compliance and Regulatory Landscape Because hybrid roles tend to be more sophisticated and more specialized, there aren’t many obvious entry-level opportunities in these occupations. That’s a potential problem for education and training institutions that must teach these skills, and for mid-career workers who must know what skills to add to their portfolio — and when.

This science and technology options assessment (STOA) study investigates the potential employment effects of new information and communication technologies by examining the relationship between innovation, new technologies, employment and inequality. It reviews the existing literature and experiences of previous technological revolutions and argues that the race between job creation through new products and job destruction from process innovation has been won in the past by the job-creating effects of innovation. It concludes that there is an uneven distribution in the costs of digitalisation because of the skills-biased nature of technological change; so, the challenge of the future lies in coping with rising inequality from technological change. The study also proposes a set of policy options for dealing with the employment effects of digitalisation.

No published abstract