References

This database has been compiled to provide a searchable repository on published research addressing “future skills” that will be a useful tool for researchers and individuals interested in the future of work and the future of skills.

The database integrates existing bibliographies focused on future skills and the future of work as well as the results of new ProQuest and Google Scholar searches. The process of building the database also involved consultations with experts and the identification of key research organizations publishing in this area, as well as searches of those organizations’ websites. For a more detailed explanation of how the database was assembled, please read the Future Skills Reference Database Technical Note.

The current database, assembled by future skills researchers at the Diversity Institute, is not exhaustive but represents a first step in building a more comprehensive database. It will be regularly updated and expanded as new material is published and identified. In that vein, we encourage those with suggestions for improvements to this database to connect with us directly at di.fsc@ryerson.ca.

From this database, we also selected 39 key publications and created an Annotated Bibliography. It is designed to serve as a useful tool for researchers, especially Canadian researchers, who may need some initial guidance in terms of the key references in this area.

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Reference

Intelligence artificielle et travail

The key question is whether artificial intelligence represents a technological breakthrough as the work is found in turned abruptly, with a significant impact on employment, or if it is a continuation of digital transformations work for decades. To try and illustrate respond concretely to the challenges posed by these announced changes, our report has chosen to examine three areas as transportation, banking and health, to outline the work of transformation scenarios. [googletranslate_en]
Reference

Transformation numérique et compétences du 21e siècle pour la prospérité du Québec: exemple de l'industrie minière

The National Mining Institute has established goals associated with critical issues that will guide its actions and projects for the coming years. One of the issues identified is the knowledge of education trends affecting the development of skills of the future. In this issue are closely related analysis and dissemination objectives of innovation trends that may have an impact on the mining training in Quebec. Another issue that interested the Institute is updating the training offer by carrying forward and prospective studies for the development of a repository of skills sought in the Quebec mining industry. For this work, the Institute wishes to contribute to the work initiated at the national level in connection with the digital transformation in the context of the Industrial Revolution 4.0, especially by bringing its expertise to the development of the future National Strategy on workforce. Designed with the aim of becoming a reference tool, this book should be considered in a coherent approach of consultation leading to the preparation of national guidelines. The production of this book is part of the research process now well established in the Institute. The contextual elements that are presented are the result of a working methodical research and rigorous analysis made during the past year. The proposed action are the result of careful consideration and are founded on concrete observations on the ground. With this work, the Institute addresses several of its preferred partners, the he hopes, will find elements that can contribute to achieving their respective goals. INTRODUCTION 10 Chapter 1 presents the attractions of digital transformation for Quebec mining companies. These can be grouped find the latest trends in the implementation of new technologies, as well as ways to implement and to mobilize resources to make the transition to digital. Topics are there including the establishment of a clear vision, leadership and organizational digital culture. Chapter 2 focuses on the anticipation of 21st century skills arising from the Industrial Revolution 4.0. It suggests modernizing teaching and learning models to facilitate the necessary adequacy of training and skills. For players in the field of education and people interested in the attraction, recruitment and development of the workforce, this chapter provides food for thought as well as a draft framework skills employability. Finally, it places particular emphasis on the need to encourage and support measures to facilitate learning throughout life. To contextualize the material presented and guide thinking and decision making, the important thought has Institute identify key issues that stand out, and operational courses of action that may be brought forward. Finally, the Institute hopes to expand its partner network by sharing not only his knowledge of the issues associated with skills required in the coming years, but also its ability to carry out projects that contribute to the updating of the training offer and attracting a diverse workforce. [googletranslate_en]
Reference

High performance working: A synthesis of key literature

This Evidence Report synthesises the key recent research evidence on the theme of High-Performance Working (HPW), setting out clearly the current state of knowledge on the topic, and identifying research gaps and policy questions. The report is one of the first outputs from the UK Commission’s Skills Utilisation project, complementing a fuller literature review conducted by Scottish Government. It will be followed in the coming months by other reports from this major project, which is looking at how the use of the HPW approach can help to ensure skills are better used in UK workplaces. We hope you find this report useful and informative in building the evidence we need to achieve a more prosperous and inclusive society.
Reference

Assessing learning outcomes: Thinking critically about critical thinking and written communication skills

Outcomes‐based education (OBE), namely the emphasis in education systems on learning outcomes and their assessment, has had one of the largest and most significant impacts on postsecondary education (PSE) in recent decades. Not only does OBE present clear statements to describe students’ skills and abilities, it also provides the vehicle by which postsecondary institutions can assess and improve the quality of their programs and demonstrate the value of these programs to both employers and the general public. Ontario PSE institutions, colleges in particular, have long embraced OBE. From the development of postsecondary program standards that specify the vocational learning outcomes of their credentials, to the inclusion of general education requirements, and the introduction of outcomes that require graduates to demonstrate skills in communication, numeracy, critical thinking and problem solving, information management, interpersonal skills, and personal skills — known collectively as the essential employability skills (EES) — Ontario colleges have provided leadership in the development of OBE. However, this leadership is not as uniformly evident when we consider the assessment of learning outcomes. Whereas numerous assessment approaches, as well as research to support their validity as measures of student performance, have evolved at the vocational level, in the case of the essential skills, and primarily of critical thinking (CT) — the focus of this study — there is to date no definitive assessment strategy. This situation is compounded by an ongoing lack of common understanding and consensus of what constitutes an essential skill such as CT, and the abilities that demonstrate its attainment.
Reference

Innovative approaches for ensuring universal social protection for the future of work

Social protection systems around the world face challenges to provide full and effective coverage for workers in all forms of employment, including those in “new” forms of employment. While some emerging work and employment arrangements may provide greater flexibility for workers and employers, they may lead to significant gaps in social protection coverage, at a time when demands on social protection systems are increasing. It is therefore necessary to strengthen and adapt social protection systems to enable them to continue to fulfil their key role in preventing and reducing poverty, enhancing income security and limiting inequality. This paper provides a review of innovative approaches that countries have undertaken to close coverage and adequacy gaps, and to adapt social protection systems to changing circumstances and demands through a combination of contributory and non-contributory mechanisms. The paper focuses in particular on various categories of workers who often face social protection gaps, namely part-time workers, workers on temporary contracts, self-employed workers and those with unclear employment relationships, and workers on digital platforms.
Reference

The great reversal in the demand for skill and cognitive tasks

What explains the current low rate of employment in the US? While there has been substantial debate over this question in recent years, we believe that considerable added insight can be derived by focusing on changes in the labor market at the turn of the century. In particular, we argue that in about the year 2000, the demand for skill (or, more specifically, for cognitive tasks often associated with high educational skill) underwent a reversal. Many researchers have documented a strong, ongoing increase in the demand for skills in the decades leading up to 2000. In this paper, we document a decline in that demand in the years since 2000, even as the supply of high education workers continues to grow. We go on to show that, in response to this demand reversal, high-skilled workers have moved down the occupational ladder and have begun to perform jobs traditionally performed by lower-skilled workers. This de-skilling process, in turn, results in high-skilled workers pushing low-skilled workers even further down the occupational ladder and, to some degree, out of the labor force all together. In order to understand these patterns, we offer a simple extension to the standard skill biased technical change model that views cognitive tasks as a stock rather than a flow. We show how such a model can explain the trends in the data that we present and offers a novel interpretation of the current employment situation in the US.
Reference

High performance working: Developing a survey tool

The development of a longitudinal employer-based survey tool is one of three linked subprojects commissioned by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills within a project concerned with Skills Utilisation in the UK. The concept of skills utilisation encompasses a range of high-performance work practices with a focus on creating a working environment in which employee talents can be deployed for the optimal mutual benefit of themselves and their employer. As such it implies a particular concern with identification of workforce talents, designing work in such a way that employee talents are optimally used and offering opportunities for employees to contribute to shaping the broader development of the organisation beyond the confines of their job descriptions. Concerns about adequate deployment of workforce skills derive from broader concerns about the role of skills in contributing to the UK’s economic performance. The UK ‘skills problem’ is multi-faceted, well documented and has a long history. Our stock of skills and their optimal deployment fare relatively poorly when compared internationally according to Skills Utilisation measures such as labour productivity and levels of qualifications among different workforce groups. Access to opportunities for skills acquisition is uneven as are their impacts and a number of reasons are provided for this, often deriving from Human Capital Theory (Becker, 1964). For organisations, underinvestment in skills may appear to be a rational response in the face of risks such as poaching of trained workers and payback time on investment. Equally organisations may be keen to invest in developing workforce skills, but lack capacity or capability to manage the process, or simply find it difficult to source appropriate training or lack broader knowledge of how skills utilisation can be optimised. It is within this context that this survey tool has been developed.
Reference

A multilevel, cross-domain investigation into adaptive team performance

Three research questions were designed to investigate the relationship between individual team-member characteristics and team adaptability. The first found perceptual measures of self- and team-adaptability are related within persons. The second examined perceptual measures of adaptability using social combination models to compare individual members' perceptions of adaptability to the team-level construct of adaptability. Team adaptability was moderately related to the member with the highest self-perceived self-adaptability early in team formation but more strongly related to the average team member's self-adaptability later in training. Finally, team perceptions of adaptability were used to predict team adaptive performance on non-routine trials over time. Team perceptions of adaptability were not found to be related to adaptive team performance.
Reference

Computerization and immigration: Theory and evidence from the United States

Recent technological changes have been characterized as “routine-substituting,” reducing demand for routine tasks but increasing it for analytical and service tasks. Little is known about how these changes have impacted immigration, or task specialization between immigrants and natives. In this paper we show that such technological progress has been an important determinant of immigration, attracting immigrants who increasingly specialize in manual-service occupations. We also suggest that open- ness to immigration attenuated job and wage polarization for natives resulting from technological changes. We explain these facts with a model of technological progress and endogenous immigration. Simulations show that unskilled immigration attenuates the drop in routine employment proceeding from technological change, enhances skill-upgrading for natives, and raises economy-wide productivity and welfare.