Bridging the Artificial Intelligence Skills Gap in the Machine Manufacturing Industry
biggest skill gap in AI and ML spans across
the organization. help improve existing employee skills
efficiently.
The
Finnish
Artificial
Intelligence
Programme end report pointed out that
based on their survey, Finland has high
quality education for those who aim to be
AI professionals (e.g. information
technology, mathematics), but there is a
gap in the AI applier field. In these fields,
the effects of AI would be seen fastest. The
working group stated that in order to
achieve the ambitious AI targets, the most
important things are to ensure that
versatile education will be available,
investments are made in new education
methods and programs are created to
attract talent to Finland. Much of the employee competencies are
based on the on-the-job learning, and thus
companies have more responsibility for
competence development. Companies are
actively seeking for ways to re-educate
their employees either internally or in co-
operation with other companies.
Continuous
education
of
current
employees is a challenge, and different
operations and mechanisms are needed to
address these concerns. A critical factor is
to increase management awareness and
knowledge regarding the opportunities AI
will bring. This is how enough input can be
secured for new flexible education
methods.
Employee competence requirements are
affected by the changes in the work
demand in the job markets. The need for
new talent is increasing at a rapid pace in
tasks where AI will be developed and
applied. This demand cannot be addressed
by the usual education path. Rather, new
operations and mechanisms are needed to
Today, numerous approaches exist to carry
out education, but suitable combinations
for workplace learning in Industry 4.0
contexts do not yet really exist. But
without an adequate performance
appraisal strategy and adequate training of
the workforce with suitable educational
approaches (e.g. self-regulated, reflective,
collaborative, blended learning), there is a
risk that workers are excluded from being
employed in Industry 4.0 environments
and that the expected impact on task
performance decreases (i.e. efficiency of
production, product diversity and quality). 4
To succeed, companies need to equip their
existing professionals with the AI skills to
apply their knowledge in the AI-driven
world. This is supported by a recent study
of Future Workplace and The Learning
House (2018) 5 highlighting that training
the workforce for AI and ML skills could be
the efficient way to fill the skills gap.
Letmathe & Schinner (2017) 6 state that the
success of workers will depend on their
4
E.Ras et. al (2018): Bridging the Skills Gap of Workers in Industry 4.0 by Human Performance Augmentation Tools –
Challenges and Roadmap. Luxemburg Institute of Science and Technology. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference
on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments. Pages 428-432
5
https://www.learninghouse.com/closing-skills-gap-report/
6
Lemathe P. & Schinner, M. RWTH Aachen University. Competence Management in the Age of Cyber Physical Systems. In
book: Industrial Internet of Things. Oct 2017.
IIC Journal of Innovation
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