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In this weekly short-form podcast, we take you beyond the usual techie jargon, and teach you something new about the latest developments in technology with leaders from some of Switzerland’s most innovative Startups – all in around 10 minutes. In other words, no tech background required, your curiosity is all that’s needed!
In this weekly short-form podcast, we take you beyond the usual techie jargon, and teach you something new about the latest developments in technology with leaders from some of Switzerland’s most innovative Startups – all in around 10 minutes.
In other words, no tech-background required, your curiosity is all that’s needed!
A podcast from digitalswitzerland, hosted by Matthias Zwingli and produced by Tinka Media.
Sounds like something from a science fiction movie script? Believe us, it’s not…
Join us on a journey deep into the realms of biotech. How can you create the largest human organ? Why isn’t it possible to produce a human heart in the lab and what are the biggest challenges and opportunities in biotech? Daniela Marino, CEO of Swiss Startup Cutiss unlocks the fascinating challenges and achievements of creating human skin.
«The first idea of engineering skin started in the 1970s. The idea was great but it didn’t fly, because it’s difficult! To produce a large amount of skin, personalised, and on-demand is a huge challenge.»
Today we dive into the fascinating world of IoT (internet of things). Matthias Rebellius, COO of Siemens Smart Infrastructure and CEO of Siemens Switzerland unpacks how smart workspaces help you to work more efficiently. What role does IoT play in smart infrastructure and how does Covid-19 affect our working environment?
This week, we speak to Diana Engetschwiler, Senior Director/Head of Public Dialogue + Digital Days at digitalswitzerland. We find out how one of Switzerland’s largest events, Swiss Digital Days, has become hybrid, what role the public play in digitalisation and what the ‘new normal’ of events looks like…
«The future of events is going to be hybrid! The combination between online and offline will stay.»
Lea von Bidder is CEO of AVA Women, a Swiss Startup with a mission to revolutionise women’s reproductive health by bringing together artificial intelligence and clinical research. She tells us about her work focusing on the relevant data points, how to make digital health actionable and who she thinks will claim the future of digital health…
«The future of healthcare will be driven by data and data analytics.»
Head of CERN openlab, Alberto di Meglio takes us on a path to explain what machine learning is actually about, what the limitations of Artificial Intelligence and big data are, and what we can expect from the future of these technologies?
«There is biased data, a machine cannot understand that data is not ethically correct.»
Olga Dubey is CEO of AgroSustain, a Swiss Food Tech that makes crops last longer. Today, she takes us on a journey of what it means to bring fresh fruit to our table, how to extend the lifetime of produce, and what the current trends are in the food industry to keep up with quality and demand.
«Consumers want high fruit quality and little food waste, which is still a challenge to combine.»
Javier Bello Ruiz is the CEO & Co-Founder of Imverse, a 3-D graphics company and spin-off from EPFL in Lausanne. He explains what the differences are between virtual reality, mixed reality and augmented reality. Where the different industries stand and what we can expect will happen in the future. Furthermore, his startup makes hologram calls possible.
«I believe that the digital future is 3-dimensional, live, and social.»
Jan Wurzbacher is c0-CEO & Founder of Climeworks, a world leader in direct air capture technology. In this latest episode, he explains how Climeworks started to fight climate change by removing CO₂ from the atmosphere, why it’s more about saving humanity than saving our planet and what we can expect of the climate tech industry.
«Should we remove CO₂ from the air or should we stop emitting it? In my eyes, it’s not an either-or question, we have to do both!»
Patrick Griss is executive partner at Zühlke Ventures, a Swiss health tech venture investor. He elaborates on why healthcare will move from action-based to outcome-based medicine, how the consumer will become more empowered through technology, and the challenges that preventive healthcare and personalised medicine are facing.
«We are moving from action-based to outcome-based medicine, it is still in the beginning but it is a trend that will not stop!»
Martin Eichenhofer is the CEO and Co-Founder of 9T Labs, a Swiss startup that provides an all-in-one solution for digital composite production. He explains why the democratisation of manufacturing through 3D printing never took off, what the status quo and use-cases in 3D printing are and what we can expect from the future.
«3D printing is an automation, soon we will be able to print all possible materials!»
Edward Shone is Head of PR at ProtonMail, one of the biggest encrypted email services in the world. He explores the importance of personal data privacy, why the gathering of our private data and the accumulation of our digital identity will only increase and how to achieve a more privacy-friendly digital future.
«I believe data privacy is a human right and everyone should have access to it.»
Andy Fitze is the co-founder and managing director of SwissCognitive, a network of industries, organisations, enterprises and startups that discuss the opportunities, impacts and development of AI. He elaborates on why AI is a trending topic, what the international landscape looks like and what awaits us in the near future.
«The society themselves will change over time and will accept and will recognise, this is not my devil, this is not my hell. This is something that can help us to overcome some real problems of the world.»
Alberto di Meglio is Head of Cern openlab. He delves into the early beginnings of internet research at CERN that began more than 30 years ago. Why it takes time to adapt and trust in new technologies like the internet or cloud computing, and what technologies could next impact our lives.
«One of the latest trends that many companies and the research environment are studying is a new concept called confidential computing or private computing, where data is really secured end-to-end using encryption and special digitalisation.»
The Swiss dual learning system is widely admired and the subject of emulation attempts by countries as diverse as the United States and Rwanda.
Vocational education and training (VET) enables young people to learn a trade by combining classroom study with in-company work. At the end of their compulsory education, at the lower secondary school level (Sek I), young people in Switzerland can choose between continuing their studies or opting for VET. The basic in-company apprenticeship combines three or four days a week in the workplace with classroom learning at a vocational school. The apprentice is paid by the employer throughout the training period, which lasts between two and four years and culminates in a Federal VET Diploma or Federal VET Certificate. Afterwards, the individual can enter the labour market directly or move onto higher education.
digitalswitzerland’s Top talent report noted that many companies do not have solid forward planning for skills, partly because skill set requirements are changing so fast. This was recently borne out by media coverage of the Swiss Federal Railways SBB: there has been a gaping lack of planning for training and recruitment of railway engineers. But while SBB has been publicly blamed and shamed for the lack of foresight, other areas of the economy are suffering similar issues. In 2019, 12,000 apprentice positions, including 4,000 for electricians, remained unfilled. The number of young people opting for an apprenticeship is dropping in the French and Italian-speaking parts of Switzerland. Indeed, parents prefer to push children into studying and higher education in the hope that they will find jobs more easily and earn more in the longer term. The apprentice market mirrors the general skills shortage seen on the wider labour market.
Currently, the most coveted apprenticeships are in the commercial, digital, health and social sectors. Hospitality, industry and catering professions are increasingly being ignored by pupils. Agriculture is struggling to retain apprentices. These are industries that require long hours, are physically demanding and where there is little flexibility in terms of location and timetables. And yet, according to Swiss politician Rudolf Strahm, “Someone who has completed an apprenticeship is three times less likely to become unemployed or be without work for a long period.” Guy Ryder, head of the International Labour Organization (ILO), goes further: “In countries where apprenticeship systems are strong, youth unemployment rates mirror those for adults. Where apprenticeship systems are weak, youth unemployment is typically much higher, reaching three or even four times the adult unemployment rate.”
Apprenticeships are not just for school leavers. As the concept of a career change become more widespread, some people choose to start an apprenticeship in their 40s or 50s. Some 269 over-40s requalified through apprenticeships in 2014. There are also examples in the 25-40 age group, such as a banker retraining to become a chocolatier or an investor becoming a restaurateur.
The increased global interest in apprenticeships has extended to adult apprenticeships. The 2019 European Alliance for Apprenticeships (EAfA) meeting in Finland explored apprenticeships as a route to reskill and requalify adults, for example to enable low-skilled workers to have access to new opportunities and open up new career options for experienced workers at risk of losing their jobs to automation.
According to the ILO, apprenticeships offer a more flexible approach to training, given that they combine work and learning. They require “learning by doing” with hands-on skills, as well as problem-solving. They also, by their very nature, enable close links to employers. In an increasingly automated world, it is the employers who know what they need. As the job market transforms and becomes more demanding, apprenticeships depend on human presence and support, as well as social dialogue.
“The new kinds of work that are now being created and the existing jobs that will be redefined and reorganized in the future are more difficult to forecast, so we can only speculate. Algorithms and databases are automating some kinds of work, but even as this occurs other value-creating opportunities are appearing,” write Martin Kenney and John Zysman in a long analysis of the digital platform economy. No doubt, as long as there are humans, there will be a place for apprenticeships of all kinds well into the future.
These days, there is no excuse for not learning. The question is how to stimulate intrinsic motivation in the absence of extrinsic motivation driven by employability. We explore ways to support learners with inclusion and integration in mind.
Learning starts from the moment we are born. Learning by doing, learning by mimicking, learning by rote, learning by deducing – there are many ways in which we learn. Once we start kindergarten and school, we fit in to standardised learning, where our ability to learn in a vertical manner is tested, at all levels of schooling and systems are subject to international comparisons, such as PISA. Many of us go on to an apprenticeship or university, and some stay in education even beyond that.
Once released into the labour market, we are required to learn on the job, sometimes too within formal learning structures, either in-house or outside the organisation.
The pressure to learn eases off at retirement. Given that retired people still have many active years ahead of them, it’s the perfect time to actively pursue new learning opportunities.
The need to actively learn in order to acquire updated knowledge and stay in touch with societal developments is growing ever more pressing. The so-called Silver Surfer generation, which will comprise a large portion of the Swiss population within the next few decades, must keep pace with technological change. The benefits are many: Cheaper (electronic) invoices from major suppliers, cheaper bank services online than offline, ease and joy of electronic communication with children and grandchildren…All of these require at the very least basic technology and literacy skills.
People with disabilities, whatever those may be, also need to master new technologies, at whatever level they can, to ensure inclusion. A great deal of work is being done in assistive technology. The aim is to promote greater independence by enabling people to perform tasks that were previously impossible of very difficult. Efforts focus on improving or changing methods of interacting with the required technology. For example, for the visually impaired there are assistive technologies that include enlarging screens, Braille keyboards, voice recognition and reading machines.
Initiatives such as Step UP and PowerCoders for youth and adult immigrant populations provide livelihoods and renewed hope for integration and employment. Even the least qualified will need to learn new skills in order to navigate tomorrow’s world. On-the-job learning as well as reverse mentoring from children and friends can enable knowledge transfer without offending hierarchical or cultural sensitivities.
While the labour market has very clear needs in terms of skills – teamwork, complex problem-solving, communication, creativity, agility etc. – those outside the workforce may have more difficulty selecting leaning opportunities. An internet search reveals a wide array of online courses from all over the world – on many topics and in many different languages. That is one reason why it is so important that schools teach how to refine searches online and seek out credible sources. Offline courses at the Universities of the Third Age in Switzerland offer a wide variety of subjects for older citizens to keep their knowledge up to date, including basic computing skills. Just as the real world needs exploring, so does the virtual world.
There has been a lot of discussion in the media and at governmental level about the difficulty older workers experience finding jobs, particularly the long-term unemployed. Yet among OECD Member States, Switzerland ranks among the top five countries with a relatively high employment rate among 55 to 64-year-olds. Early retirement trends have declined and labour market participation of 55 to 64-year-olds has increased from 65% to 73% over the last twenty years.
Two main factors are driving the positive figures in Switzerland: the gradual increase in the age of retirement in Switzerland and the general trend towards increased participation in the workforce, notably of women. Among non-active people aged 55 to 64, 31% reported in 2018 that they did not work because of disability (21%) or temporary inability to work (10%). Almost a quarter cited personal reasons for not being active, while 27% took early retirement and 16% retired at the regular age. A minority of just 3% reported that they had no or little opportunity on the labour market.
In 2018, the labour supply of people over 55 years of age was about 792,000 active persons employed in full-time equivalents (FTEs). These older workers account for almost a fifth of the overall available workforce of the permanent resident population in Switzerland. This increase from 16% a decade ago comes despite significant social charges and, for some, a certain stigma. Many of the employers of older workers are SMEs, who appear to welcome this age group more than others. No other age category recorded comparable growth in the labour market over the last ten years.
The recent submission to the Swiss Parliament of a financing bridge for older people who have been unemployed for some time and have great difficulty reintegrating the labour market is a positive step. For some, it is almost impossible to find a job after the age of 60. The Baby Boomer generation is often sandwiched between ageing parents who need care at prohibitive expense and children who prolong studies or have difficulty entering the job market.
While financial support is certainly a step in the right direction, upskilling or reskilling are further measures that would support older workers and boost long-term employability. According to TravailSuisse, employers are often reluctant to contribute to funding of continuing education measures for people aged over 50. This reluctance is misguided given that people in this age bracket tend to remain with their employer for a long time, offering high commitment and productivity. Online and offline training courses for any budget are an important investment in full digital literacy.
Employability is very much a buzz word in today’s market. Even if older workers are recognised for their great experience, reliability and loyalty, employers are not inclined to hire people over 50. They are more expensive in terms of social security contributions. Some employers fear a lack of flexibility, a different pace, lower creativity or poor integration into a younger team. However, the greatest scourge of older workers in the labour market is their – potential – skills gap for our increasingly digital economy.
Whatever their age, workers must ensure that they continue to learn for life. Cultivating all kinds of social networks and engaging in secondary or voluntary activities, particularly if unemployed, are also ways to gain new skills.
With an increased focus on competences rather than strict job profiles, artificial intelligence (AI) may help support the selection of older workers in the future. After all, forward-thinking companies appreciate the value of human experience, knowledge and knowhow at any age.
In January 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by world leaders in 2015, officially came into force. The SDGs represent the global community’s aspirations for a better future for humanity and the Federal Council has declared its commitment to working towards them in Switzerland and globally.
SDG 4 is focused on education: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Like the other SDGs, SDG 4 is subdivided into targets (the “how”) and indicators (the measures of success). This helps make the goals tangible and achievable for countries. Target 4.4 aims to: By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship. Indicator 4.4.1 measures how many youth and adults have the right information technology skills, giving them a path better jobs.
In 2019, António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), noted: “Rapid technological changes present opportunities and challenges, but the learning environment, the capacities of teachers and the quality of education have not kept pace.” Even though his statement applies to the global setting, it is just as valid for Switzerland. While the Swiss private sector, NGOs and scientific community have been committed to sustainable development for a long time, the country was slow to adopt digital learning in schools. The Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK/CIDP) only published its digital strategy in 2018; Lehrplan 21 and PER may be outdated by the time they are fully rolled out in all schools.
Digital integration comprises three dimensions according to sociologist Luc Vodoz:
Most of the Swiss population has access in some form or another to ICT. In 2016, 78% of 15 to 74-year-olds in Switzerland owned a smartphone – that is some 4.9 million people. Among students, 98% use a computer at home and 78% at school. Ninety percent of the Swiss population uses the internet at least once a week. In terms of the access aspects, Switzerland fares well.
However, there is variation when it comes to knowhow and content. Lots of schools are teaching about fake news and fact finding, others focus on simple Office suite knowledge, and some are tackling computational thinking and coding. At this rate, Switzerland will take a long time to reach the target.
digitalswitzerland has supported the Campus/Spotlight events for two years to encourage teachers to innovate with digital teaching and bring best practice through peer sharing. There are some fabulous projects out there; Switzerland needs to multiply them exponentially! Initiatives like this are an exciting opportunity for the next generation. They also play an important role in our country’s efforts to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
How can we adequately prepare our children for a future that’s changing as quickly as the present? A world in which 65% of jobs don’t even exist yet. It’s a tall order for education systems, which tend to move slowly and cautiously. Even with their new digital emphasis, Switzerland’s Lehrplan21 and Plan d’études romand (PER) are based on the postulate of knowledge as the basis for competence. But as digitalisation and automation revolutionise habits and behaviours, should knowledge be giving way to skills as the product of a successful education?
Can the education system reconcile the focus on skills to traditional learning methods and approaches? Knowing where and how to find information, rather than memorising the information itself, appears to be becoming a new norm. Primary, secondary and tertiary education have all seen a shift towards analytical learning using practical exercises. Some institutions have also integrated project-based learning to teach communication and team working skills.
At the higher education level, nobody is surprised that MBA course participants work with businesses as part of the learning process. In other fields, though, subject leaders within universities can be concerned about the possible loss of independence of thought and action if businesses get involved, however. Nevertheless, if academia is to prepare students for working life, bridges need to be built between the two worlds. Switzerland’s great strength is in finding compromises that benefit all sides.
The cantons cover most of the public expenditure of the cantonal universities and the universities of applied sciences, and the Confederation also makes some financial contributions. Teacher training institutions (HEP/HP) are financed by the cantons. The two federal institutes of technology are financed by the Confederation. This means that higher education institutions in Switzerland are accountable to the cantons and Confederation, and can only innovate to the extent that the cantons and Confederation agree. Furthermore, the pressure of a market economy is reduced, as financing is more or less guaranteed. Nevertheless, cognizant of the fact that the world is changing, all the institutions of higher education in Switzerland are trying to cater to evolving needs.
Other providers are also addressing the need for new learning opportunities – a lifetime long. The advent of massive open online courses (MOOCs) has changed the education landscape quickly and dramatically. As the first free online courses with unlimited global enrolment open to anyone, MOOCs have changed the scalability of education. The hope that MOOCs might reduce disparity was questioned in an article in Science, as study findings by researchers Hansen and Reich raised concerns that MOOCs and similar approaches to online learning can exacerbate rather than reduce disparities in educational outcomes related to socioeconomic status. Justin Reich in Education Week laments that MOOCs do not provide the kind of exchange that students seek and “while direct instruction has its place, the best of what we can offer is oriented around true two-way discourse, student discovery, and student production and performance.”
It’s vital that we tackle challenges in education, upskilling and reskilling now – in preparation for the sea change we expect in the future labour market. As McKinsey points out: “The potential number of jobs gained can only be attained if available skills match the need for such jobs; otherwise, job opportunities might remain vacant or be transferred to other countries.” Skill sets such as teamwork, creativity and problem-solving need to be embedded in the way curricula at all levels are developed, using new technologies to support the teaching, not to replace it.
Digital transformation continues to change the way we work. As processes go digital, what about the people responsible for them? One in three jobs is set to be taken over by software, robots and smart machines by 2025. And while the shift will save $5-6 trillion in global employment costs, it won’t necessarily mean a loss of jobs. In fact, we can expect completely new job profiles to emerge. This, in the words of WEF founder Klaus Schwab, means: “Talent, not capital, will be the key factor linking innovation, competitiveness and growth in the 21st century.”
The 2018 WEF Future of Work report puts the onus on businesses to take an active role in supporting their existing workforces through reskilling and upskilling. What’s more, they need to embrace this mindset now to prevent a situation where technological change plus talent shortage add up to mass unemployment and growing inequality.
How do Swiss companies fare? In 2015, 89% of Swiss companies supported continuing professional training, at least for some of their employees. But if they really want to drive change, companies in Switzerland need to do more to develop and implement robust solutions that close the growing skills gaps.
SMEs are the backbone of the Swiss economy and account for 99% of companies and around two-thirds of jobs in the country. Although small companies (10 to 49 employees) are often less active in the field of continuing training, they have made the biggest leap forward in recent years. Size is not a hurdle to lifelong learning if companies opt to offer training through external providers rather than in-house structures. In Switzerland, 74% of companies offer outside learning opportunities compared to 58% with their own programmes.
According to a recent study by Deloitte companies and individuals acknowledge that the traditional career model is becoming defunct. Of those surveyed in Switzerland, over half consider building new career models and skills very important. At the same time, around 57% have no programmes in place to build the skills of the future, and only 25% give employees active development opportunities.
The four drivers of change are increasing automation and digitalisation, the global war for talent, an ageing population and flexibilisation of work. The boom in digital platforms such as Uber has sparked massive change in the world of work, contributing greatly to what is now called the gig economy. The latter is often perceived as a fast-growing threat to employment stability and workers’ rights, as the economy functions on low-grade, low-paid jobs. As people increasingly turn to platforms or independent jobs based on project work, we must address the issue of responsibility. What are platforms or short-term business partners doing to ensure that workers are trained, upskilled and re-skilled. As many independent workers start in more formal company settings, this is the place to instil the urgency and need to keep learning, regardless of career or lifestyle choices.
Lifelong learning is part of a package that companies can use to attract and retain talent. The offer must be varied, include different subjects, technologies, methodologies, and provide value not only to the company but to the employee. At the same time, Swiss companies need to acknowledge the variety of transferrable, sometimes uncertified, skills that a diverse – human – workforce brings.
Switzerland is committed to pursuing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all and promote lifelong learning. As educational and economic needs change, how does the Swiss government support lifelong learning?
In 2016, the Confederation, cantons and communes spent a total of CHF 37.2 billion on education, equivalent to 17.5% of total public expenditure and 5.6% of Switzerland’s gross domestic product (GDP). In European terms, Swiss spending on education ranks among the top 15, with Iceland leading the way at over 7% of GDP.
At federal level, the education spend for 2016 came to CHF 6.4 billion overall, of which more than half was spent directly and CHF 2.8 billion distributed via the cantons. Switzerland’s cantons account for the largest portion of public expenditure on vocational and professional education and training. In 2017, public expenditure for Switzerland’s vocational and professional educational and training (VPET) system stood at around CHF 3.6 billion. In accordance with the Federal Act on Vocational and Professional Education (VPETA), the Confederation funds a quarter of total public VPET expenditure. Alongside public funding, professional organisations and companies also contribute heavily to the financing of vocational and professional education and training, including the dual system.
In 2018, a Federal Council strategy document warned of the impact of globalisation and digitalisation on jobs. Actors in the field of training, research and innovation were urged to take their roles as digital agents seriously, strengthen their position and raise awareness of digitalisation in society and the economy. Although the government acknowledges the need to keep pace with change, more could be done.
The Swiss Federation for Adult Learning (SVEB/FSEA) has constituted a parliamentary working group to raise the agenda of lifelong learning and increase the profile of the issue at the political level. Meanwhile, the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) has initiated a programme targeted at the least qualified workers in Switzerland, who cannot and must not be left behind as the economy and labour markets move forward on the wave of digitalization. As the OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria has put on public record, “We need an effective system for lifelong learning, offering opportunities to the low-skilled, who are the most at risk from automation.”
Employment status in Switzerland is closely related to education level and income class, with an employment rate of 64.0% in the low-income population and 92.0% in the high-income brackets. Clearly, lifelong learning is a worthwhile investment. But funding is a central issue, especially among the lower-income groups that – arguably – need it most.
Following the success of the think tank TRANSIT in Zurich, the Swiss Federation for Adult Learning (SVEB/FSEA) and digitalswitzerland organised TRANSIT Romandie. It complements the recently launched lifelong learning campaign. Well attended by a diverse lifelong learning community from all over the French-speaking part of Switzerland, TRANSIT was a chance to brainstorm adult education priorities for the next ten years.
Flipped classrooms, distance learning, integration of new learning technologies, instant feedback: These practices in continuing education are revolutionising the field of lifelong learning. TRANSIT participants wondered whether they could also negatively impact course pace – and reduce the depth of learning. How can we ensure that pedagogical innovations bring added value to the learner?
The personal significance of learning emerged as a key point in the discussion on learning and how to learn. Regardless of the pedagogy used, is it more motivating when learning is a must in order to keep a position or when it’s driven by the desire to acquire new skills? Whether or not participants are active in the workforce, the lifelong learning community must accommodate all learners and provide both meaning and objectives.
The private sector is the main financial contributor to lifelong learning, distributing some 1.6 billion francs each year. For Switzerland to pursue its ambitions as a leader in innovation and productivity, what are the political dimensions to be addressed? And what needs to be put in place to ensure opportunities for everyone to enjoy lifelong learning? What levers can be used to improve the overall continuing education policy in Switzerland?
Ideas included ways to better inform companies on how to access state funding and simplify routes to financial support. Indeed, while there are many funding opportunities for lifelong learning, the pathways to this money are many and mysterious. Federal, cantonal and communal authorities need to work to make access simpler and more transparent.
Digitalisation and ‘Industry 4.0’ are accelerating change in the world of employment and society, already weakened by the impact of an ageing population and international competition. How can lifelong learning be improved in light of these changes while at the same time safeguarding high quality? What elements of change should be considered, and what aspects are irrelevant?
There was consensus on the fact that everyone needs to be learning for life. As complexity takes on new dimensions, an interdisciplinary, intersectoral group focused on lifelong learning was suggested as way to address the many issues in the sector. Other issues raised included a lack of transparency, trainings that are no longer fit for purpose, trainers who lack the right technology know-how, and the challenge of motivating the least qualified workers to train.
TRANSIT participants pondered on whether adult trainers themselves should be asked to upskill and requalify regularly. This would protect the quality of teaching and ensure lessons reflect our changing world, in which skill sets are complementing or even replacing specific professional expertise.
The group felt that more work was needed to develop a vision of lifelong learning for everyone – one that encompasses the most impactful use of resources, time and money.
The aspiration to lead long and healthy lives was given a boost with the recent completion of a $100M funding round by Juvenescence – a UK biotech company focused on extending longevity.
We are already living longer than our grandparents and children born in rich countries today have a 50-50 chance of living beyond 105 years old. But, while life expectancy continues to increase, there is a general consensus that we, as individuals and as a society, are ill prepared for century-plus living.
Academics such as Gratton and Scott in their 2016 book The 100 Year Life believe that we must fundamentally rethink how we approach work and education. They argue that the current three-stage life of education, work, retirement no longer applies. Instead, they propose a multi-stage life where transitions will become the norm, with repeated changes of direction and many different careers.
Interpose century-plus living against a backdrop of faster, smarter and cheaper technology, and we will see a significant churn in the labor market as traditional jobs disappear and new ones appear. As digitization hits industries, those losing jobs might not be able to retrain fast enough to qualify for new jobs that are being created. In shorter lives with relatively stable labor markets, the knowledge and skills that a person mastered in youth could last an entire career. In a longer life with a rapidly changing job market, one must continually re-learn and re-skill.
Unfortunately, few people are equipped to make multiple transitions. It requires flexibility and the ability to acquire new knowledge, explore new ways of thinking, and proactively build new networks. Transitions also require time. Individuals could take a sequential approach by interspersing income-earning stages with learning and self-reflection. Or, they could take a parallel approach by using their leisure and recreational time during one career stage to reinvent themselves in preparation for the next, as described by Gratton and Scott. The advent of online learning and digital coaching platforms helps facilitate the process of self-improvement and re-skilling for those who choose a parallel approach.
In this digital age, there is much discussion about the need for digital skills. But given the rate of technological development, what stocks of skills and knowledge will remain valuable and how can they be developed?
While there is a tendency to focus on technical expertise, research on leadership in the digital age by IMD’s Global Center for Digital Business Transformation reveals the need for a much broader and richer set of core portable skills and attitudes. We recommend that agile workers embrace the HAVE mindset:
H: Humble
An ability to accept feedback and acknowledge that others know more than you.
A: Adaptable
An acceptance that change is constant and that changing your mind based on new information is a strength rather than a weakness.
V: Visionary
A clear sense of long-term direction, even in the face of short-term uncertainty.
E: Engaged
A willingness to listen, interact, and communicate with a strong sense of interest and curiosity in emerging trends.
Preparing for century-plus living in the digital age requires making different choices that open up opportunities in exciting ways, as long as we are prepared to embrace it.
Tomoko Yokoi is a researcher and writer at the Global Center for Digital Business Transformation, an initiative by IMD business school and Cisco.
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