The World of Work is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by global trends like technological advancement, post-pandemic economic conditions, demographic changes, migration, and climate action. World Economic Forum estimates that 69 million new jobs will be created by 2027 while 83 million will be eliminated. With the advent of Industry 4.0, the need for developing Industry ready workforce has emerged as an urgent priority.
This year, The B20 Task Force on Future of Work, Skilling, and Mobility has primarily focused its discussions and recommendations around 3 pillars:
Pillar 1: Fostering Inclusive and Sustainable Growth in The Transforming World of Work
“Work” as we know it is undergoing a major transformation in three spheres – Work, Workplace and Workforce. Creating a bank of ‘Future Roles and Skills’ through the development of a framework to map new and emerging job roles would enable individuals to choose career paths, acquire relevant skills, and guides organizations in effective talent management. Other essential factors include flexible labour markets, support for the private sector, diverse work arrangements, strengthened worker protection, lifelong learning, multilateral cooperation, advocacy for underserved communities, and effective policies for the growing gig economy.
Pillar 2: Accelerate Workforce Skilling to Adapt to Changing Industry Demand
The digital and green transitions are reshaping the workplace, with AI and automation reducing the demand for manual and basic cognitive skills. There is a critical need for nations to update curricula, develop education-industry linkages and build competencies of teachers. Adopting a skill ontology framework driven approach can also help identify and benchmark current and future skill sets.
Pillar 3: Boost Global Workforce Mobility to Match Skill Demand with Supply
With workforce mobility gaining more significance, initiatives like standardization and skills matching framework can help alleviate the skills mismatch. Multi-prong approach focusing on increasing mobility, that includes removing policy barriers through pathfinder projects, leveraging technology to manage the movement of people and create a more seamless global labour market via Uniform Labour Information Management System (ULIMS) can play a major role.
This article was contributed by Ms Shobana Kamineni, Chair, B20 India Task Force on Future of Work, Skilling & Mobility; Past President, Confederation of Indian Industry and Executive Vice Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited.
Know more about B20 India: https://www.b20india2023.org/new-homepage
