capacity to adapt: having a broader skill
base isn’t simply about meeting the needs
of today’s jobs. Rather, these skills equip
jobseekers and incumbent employees for
the future, enabling them to navigate a
dynamic landscape of accelerating change:
job losses, job changes, and job creation.
Raising one’s level of academic attainment
is the most familiar of such adaptation. By
securing targeted training, and by seeking
out hybrid jobs - such as those that require
a mix of technical and marketing skills
or that combine computer science and
business skills - one can command salary
premiums without an advanced degree.
Multiple studies cite the development of
social and emotional skills, creativity, and
high-level cognitive skills as a powerful
accelerator of adaptability. Employers
prize these skills but often have great
difficulty finding them in the workplace.
Recent research suggests that rather than
declining in importance, these skills are
likely to become even more essential,
both for jobseekers and incumbent
employees and for the success of their
workplaces. Further research suggests
that those who can combine skills such
as empathy, cooperation, and negotiation
with mathematical and analytic skills will
thrive in an economy that increasingly
relies on both.
Thriving in the new normal
Incumbent employees and jobseekers
who possess the new digital skills will
thrive in a digital economy - whether in
digital roles like software development or
in the broad array of work of the global
economy, which is increasingly enabled by
technology and data.
These new digital skills are valuable to
the individual at all levels of a career and
make employees more adaptable to future
digital disruption by giving them the edge
to acquire new skills and, thereby, adapt.
However, for the modern day employee to
develop and perfect these skills, they need
to know that these skills are in fact valued
and often required. Otherwise, people
will forgo opportunities to build them,
or will neglect to communicate their
competence or proficiency to employers,
losing out on valuable career advancement
opportunities.
Jobseekers and incumbent workers can
and must take action, but leaders within
education and industry have the greatest
opportunity to effect change that is
informed by, and responsive to, these
findings. The growth and magnitude of
recent demand for these skills indicates
that they are already of considerable
importance to enterprise. Given the
supply-demand mismatch for these
novel digital skills, those employers with
strong representation of these skills in
their workforces may find themselves at
a significant advantage. That is not only
because these capabilities are themselves
key to 21st century work, but also because
they position organizations well for the
future. Just as these skills make people
more adaptable to future digital and
sectoral disruptions, they can do the same
for employers.
Irene Mbonge is the Group Head,
Corporate Communication &
Public Affairs at CPF Group. You
can commune with her on this or
related issues via mail at: Mbonge.
[email protected].
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