The Fourth Industrial Revolution is creating demand for millions of new jobs, with vast new opportunities for fulfilling people’s potential and aspirations. However, in order to turn these opportunities into reality, new sources of data and innovative approaches to understand emerging jobs and skills, as well as to empower effective and coordinated large-scale action are urgently needed across the globe. This report, Jobs of Tomorrow: Mapping Opportunity in the New Economy, takes an in-depth look into the ‘black box’ of new job creation, reviewing the shifting focus of employment to emerging professions of the future, the reasons behind it and what skills will be required by these professions. The analysis presented in this report is based on innovative metrics authored in partnership between the World Economic Forum’s New Metrics CoLab in its Platform for the New Economy and Society, and data scientists at three partner companies: Burning Glass Technologies, Coursera and LinkedIn. Through these collaborations, the report provides insights into emerging opportunities for employment across the global economy as well as unique detail regarding the skill sets needed to leverage those opportunities.

Attracting and retaining the right talent is crucial to an organisation’s success, wherever in the world it operates. For the seventh year running, this report––created in partnership with Hays, the global recruitment consultant––presents an exhaustive analysis of the labour market landscape in 33 countries, for the benefit of workers, firms, and policymakers. Combining the local expertise of Hays with the analytical knowledge of Oxford Economics, the Hays Global Skills Index describes the latest shifts and trends in each labour market, and uses its unique Index to assess how easy or difficult it is for organisations to locate the skilled professionals they require. The report also investigates the issue of slow wage growth, and related global trends such as the slowdown in productivity growth since the financial crisis. What does this mean for workforces of the future? How will they be impacted by the twin forces of globalisation and technology? Who will be the real winners and losers from the increasing adoption of automation and machine learning? We explore the wider implications of these trends for workers, and ask what this means for policymakers around the world

Wales faces significant disruptions over the coming years. With fundamental change comes the risk of new inequalities but also the opportunities for far-reaching reform. While global and UK-wide trends such as Brexit and climate change may not be fully within the control of government in Wales, their effects, and who wins and who loses as a consequence, is not predetermined - they will be shaped by public policy decisions and choices here in Wales and at the UK level. At the centre of many of these policy choices will be the skills system and how it can be shaped to meet these 21st century challenges. This report marks the second and final report of our project considering what a 21st century skills system needs to look like to meet the challenges and opportunities that Wales faces. Through desk-based research, literature and data reviews, and face-to-face research with a range of stakeholders within and around the skills system in Wales, we have developed an outline of the attributes we believe a 21st century skills system in Wales needs to display, and a series of recommendations for how Wales can get there.

Amid reports of robotic factories and algorithmic assistants replacing humans on the job, what will work or jobs look like in the future? Coupled with the changing landscape where working, learning, and living are merging, what skills will we need to be successful and productive contributors to society? In 2011, IFTF started exploring the key work skills that people would need over a ten-year horizon in our highly-popular Future Work Skills 2020 report. Five years later, we partnered with the ACT Foundation and Joyce Foundation to further refine and validate those skills and competencies; this time, to include within the National Network of Business and Industry Association’s Common Employability Skills framework. This Future Skills report is a comprehensive literature review that highlights eleven future skills. Each skill includes a definition and attributes, ways for acquisition and development, and means for assessment and evaluation.

Using PIAAC survey and assessment data, the Adult Transitions to Learning in the USA paper identifies adults who pursue purposeful learning in contrast with those who do not – and how either group fares when disaggregated by education background. Another purpose of the paper is to describe learning types that adults pursue, such as gaining basic skills, postsecondary work, online/distance education, or on-the-job training. The paper also investigates the barriers to learning that adults face, their motivators for learning, and factors that predict whether they transition to purposeful learning as adults. Implications for postsecondary education, workforce training, and policy are discussed.

This report is one of a series that explore a number of the most important issues currently impacting the skills ecosystem in Canada. As technology changes the nature of work, Canadian companies must create a culture of continuous learning to ensure employees have the skills they need. Many companies have already begun, investing in upskilling and reskilling programs to address the skills gap. In this report, the author provides an overview of how companies including AT&T, Scotiabank, TD Bank, Accenture and Walmart are retraining their workforces. Further, it considers the role of government investment, public-private partnerships, and corporate social responsibility in upskilling and reskilling.

Adult learning can lead to a host of positive benefits for both the individual learner and wider society, including improved health, wellbeing and productivity. Increasing and widening access to learning is crucial to future prosperity, as well as to fairness and social inclusion within our nation. Despite this, the UK has seen a recent decline in the number of adults participating in learning and training. Moreover, persistent inequalities exist in who participates, with some groups, such as older people and those furthest from the labour market, least likely to be learning. Learning and Work Institute (L&W) was commissioned by the WEA: Adult Learning Within Reach and funded by the Further Education Trust for Leadership (FETL) to undertake a mixed-methods study to explore the motivations for, barriers to, and experiences of learning for adults at two key life transitions: returning to work after caring for children, and retirement. A focus on each of these transitions is extremely topical, given the current policy focus on how adults can be supported to upskill, retrain and progress at work throughout longer working lives. Gender inequalities1 in the workplace are also becoming more prominent, as is the role that learning can play in maintaining health and wellbeing into older age.2 This mixed-methods research involved: a rapid review of evidence on adults’ experiences of learning during the transition back to work after caring for children and through retirement; collecting and analysing data on each of these transitions from L&W’s 2018 Adult Participation in Learning Survey; qualitative interviews with learners going through each transition; and focus groups with adults in the same circumstances who had not engaged in learning for three years or more.

Stoking growth with critical skills After more than a decade of middling growth, Canada’s economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.7 percent in the first quarter of 2017, significantly outpacing the 1.2 percent of real GDP growth in the United States for the same period.1 Executives are optimistic about their business prospects, with many predicting both revenue and profit growth over 2016. However, Canadian leaders expressed deep concern about their ability to both find necessary skilled resources across labor markets and maintain the skills of current workers. To redress the skills challenge, both public and private sector ecosystem partners must work together.