tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/job-skills-40412/articlesJob skills – The Conversation2023-07-13T15:24:47Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2086762023-07-13T15:24:47Z2023-07-13T15:24:47ZLooking for work? 3 tips on how social media can help young South Africans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535248/original/file-20230703-268117-cyhffd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Young people are especially quick to adapt to new technology.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">i_am_zews/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa has a growing unemployment rate. Statistics show the unemployment rate to be above 60% for those aged 15-24 and over 40% for those aged <a href="https://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=15407">25-34 years</a>. Rankings from the World Bank position South Africa as having the <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/unemployment-by-country">highest unemployment rate in the world</a>. </p>
<p>This runaway unemployment rate not only creates precarious, limiting circumstances for individual young people but also poses a threat to the country’s economic growth and global competitiveness.</p>
<p>Another, much more positive statistic from the International Telecommunications Union positions young people as active <a href="https://www.itu.int/hub/publication/d-ind-ict_mdd-2022">adopters of technology</a>. Three-quarters of 15- to 24-year-olds globally use the internet actively. Though the figures show this uptake to be mostly in developed countries, there is progress on the African continent in terms of technology infrastructure to lead to <a href="https://au.int/en/pressreleases/20220727/african-internet-governance-forum-2022-africa-strives-improve-digital">internet usage</a>.</p>
<p>These developments are also noted in South Africa. The country’s internet penetration rate stood at <a href="https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2023-south-africa#:%7E:text=Internet%20use%20in%20South%20Africa%20in%202023&text=South%20Africa%27s%20internet%20penetration%20rate,at%20the%20start%20of%202023">72.3%</a> of the total population at the start of 2023. This paves the way for greater use of social media.</p>
<p>Our interest as researchers is how young people can use social media to overcome the unemployment challenge in South Africa.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/article/view/2047/3254">study</a> we carried out found three key ways for young people to enhance their employability using social media. Our findings, like those of some other <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563213002070?via%3Dihub">studies</a>, place high importance on the role of social media in a context of high unemployment. </p>
<p>For the study, we interviewed 15 human resources specialists whose work largely focused on recruitment and selection. They help some of South Africa’s leading corporate companies to find the best candidates for certain roles. These were their three key pieces of advice.</p>
<h2>1. Using social media to edify a personal brand</h2>
<p>All the interviewees in our study agreed that social media could be used to edify an individual’s brand. This is something that is becoming common and <a href="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/what-is-personal-branding-why-important/327367/#:%7E:text=Personal%20branding%20is%20the%20process%20of%20creating%20an%20identity%20for,work%20on%20your%20personal%20brand">encouraged globally</a>.</p>
<p>The aim here is clear: through your social media activity you convey a message about yourself. This can be useful to reach out to the outside world in advertising your skills set. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn are a valuable resource for young jobseekers to achieve this. </p>
<h2>2. Using social media to widen your networks</h2>
<p>Once young people have an idea of what their online “brand” will be, they can start to network. This may be with other jobseekers or prospective employers. Networking offers an opportunity to learn about the world of work, including the challenging labour market. Using information from networking, young people can be better equipped to respond to uncertainty. </p>
<p>Networking on social media platforms could involve attending webinars and discussion forums. A number of social media platforms offer tools enabling interaction through text, audio or video. One participant in our research described the strength of networking like this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Networking allows you to build your social capital on two fronts. First, you get access to interact with important stakeholders such as prospective employers. Second … not only information but a learning space from the experience of others. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Interviewees warned that young jobseekers should not compromise their personal brand. One said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Graduates should be warned about the kind of stuff they should and should not post on social media and ensure that their online media presence is closely monitored and updated so that they are aware of what others can see about them. Social media allows for quick and easy judgement-making …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Universities should consider offering social media and personal branding training awareness so that future graduates are not only aware of complexities in the labour market but also prepared to meet them. Graduate placement offices within universities could take on this training role. </p>
<h2>3. Using social media as a platform for continued learning</h2>
<p>Social media presents young people with an endless reservoir of information about the world. It includes job postings, learnership and internship opportunities, and tips on how to be marketable in an ever changing job market. </p>
<p>One participant in our study with experience recruiting in the technology sector expressed this view:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For any young person I would say continue to use social media as a fountain of learning. Learn about the world of work through social media. Importantly, also learn about yourself and how you could fit into such a world.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Tackling unemployment</h2>
<p>Our research suggests that young people should learn how to search for job opportunities, and advertise their skills and profiles on social media. This can help them tap into a network that might give them a better chance in a situation of high unemployment. </p>
<p>High data <a href="https://mybroadband.co.za/news/cellular/429334-how-much-1gb-of-data-costs-in-south-africa-vs-the-world.html">costs</a> remain a challenge. Companies and content developers can assist here in developing websites that can be accessed with no data cost implication.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Willie Tafadzwa Chinyamurindi receives funding from the National Research Foundation; National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences and the National Heritage Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liezel Cilliers receives funding from the National Research Foundation and the South African Medical Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Obrain Tinashe Murire does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>By building and maintaining a personal brand, young social media users can identify work opportunities.Willie Tafadzwa Chinyamurindi, Professor, University of Fort HareLiezel Cilliers, Professor in Health Informatics, University of Fort HareObrain Tinashe Murire, Senior lecturer in People Development and Technology, Walter Sisulu UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1941742022-11-16T19:04:12Z2022-11-16T19:04:12ZJunior staff are finding better contracts, senior staff are burning out: the arts are losing the war for talent<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495223/original/file-20221115-22-huku2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C0%2C3514%2C1534&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Museum of Warsaw</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1997, consulting firm McKinsey & Company coined the term “<a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/34512/war-talent">the war for talent</a>” to define increasing labour shortages that had significant potential to impact organisational performance. </p>
<p>The war for talent significantly impacted corporations at the time, creating a scarcity mindset and encouraging a wave of employee-focussed initiatives designed to attract and retain staff. </p>
<p>For the most part, the arts and cultural sector have been sheltered from the war for talent over past decades. Global growth in creative oriented higher education coupled with the “<a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2016/04/26/book-review-be-creative-making-a-living-in-the-new-culture-industries-by-angela-mcrobbie/">romance of being creative</a>” has led to a steady stream of workers willing to enter the sector on low pay. </p>
<p>However, in 2022 things have changed.</p>
<p>Faced with labour shortages, arts and cultural organisations increasingly find it challenging to operate. In 2021, it was reported screen productions in Australia were <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-24/high-demand-creates-film-skill-shortage/100479392">being jeopardised</a> due to lack of technical skills. </p>
<p>Now, summer festivals are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/nov/07/will-australias-festivals-survive-a-wet-chaotic-expensive-summer">struggling to find</a> frontline workers, including security, stage crew, ticketing and transport. </p>
<p>It’s not just entry-level positions that remain empty. </p>
<p>After <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/may/11/australias-culture-of-ideas-suffers-when-we-starve-our-creative-institutions-of-funding">a decade</a> of funding cuts and policy neglect, followed by the stresses induced by COVID-19, I am observing arts leaders leaving to find secure, better paid and sustainable work elsewhere. </p>
<p>In Australia’s increasingly tight labour market, the arts are finally facing a war for talent. </p>
<h2>A culture of burnout</h2>
<p>If we consider the role of the “arts manager”, it becomes easy to recognise why arts leaders are abandoning the industry.</p>
<p>Arts leaders do not just support the creation of art. They are marketers, customer service specialists, supply chain and logistics experts, grant writers, human resources managers and – increasingly – risk managers. </p>
<p>They are trying to bring back audiences post-COVID while juggling a contentious funding landscape that balances the need for revenue with audience, staff and artist <a href="https://overland.org.au/2021/09/the-arts-in-australia-need-to-break-up-with-fossil-fuels/">expectations</a> arts organisations do not partner with corporations that fail to align with organisational values. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495217/original/file-20221114-18-huku2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C0%2C4884%2C3266&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An empty office" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495217/original/file-20221114-18-huku2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C0%2C4884%2C3266&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495217/original/file-20221114-18-huku2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495217/original/file-20221114-18-huku2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495217/original/file-20221114-18-huku2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495217/original/file-20221114-18-huku2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495217/original/file-20221114-18-huku2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495217/original/file-20221114-18-huku2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Staff are increasingly burnt out.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Annie Spratt/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I am increasingly seeing young people leaving arts jobs for opportunities that recognise their skills and provide secure, better paid work. Art workers are highly valuable in today’s economy where creativity and innovation are seen as <a href="https://australiacouncil.gov.au/news/speeches-and-opinions/creative-skills-in-times-of-crisis-how-the-arts-can-help/">keys to success</a>.</p>
<p>This lack of younger workers increases the workloads of senior staff, causing them to be burnt out and leave the sector, too.</p>
<p>Staff shortages jeopardise the sector’s ability to get back on its feet after the brutal impact of COVID-19. Those that remain in our arts companies are exhausted, left trying to rebuild programs and audiences with fewer resources. </p>
<p>While “<a href="https://theconversation.com/quiet-quitting-why-doing-less-at-work-could-be-good-for-you-and-your-employer-188617">quiet quitting</a>” gets media airtime, others in the sector are asking arts workers to embrace the mantra of “<a href="https://larsenkeys.com.au/2022/09/26/post-covid-or-post-burnout-less-is-necessary/">less is necessary</a>”.</p>
<p>Individuals need to take action to address their wellbeing. Still, it is also necessary to consider the systems and structures that underpin our arts organisations and how they impact workers. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/quiet-quitting-why-doing-less-at-work-could-be-good-for-you-and-your-employer-188617">Quiet quitting: why doing less at work could be good for you – and your employer</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Structural issues</h2>
<p>One way to address the war for talent is to increase the labour supply. </p>
<p>Higher education providers who develop creative talent are lobbying for more resources to expand programs and are pushing for changes to the Job Ready graduate scheme that <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-inequity-of-job-ready-graduates-for-students-must-be-brought-to-a-quick-end-heres-how-183808">imposes higher costs</a> on arts and humanities graduates. </p>
<p>The latest <a href="https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=14754">Graduate Outcome Survey</a> shows that the employment outcomes of creative arts and arts and humanities graduates have increased over 20% since 2019. The high rates of graduate employability aligns with Australia’s historically low unemployment rate, but also demonstrates the value creative skills now hold in the broader economy. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-inequity-of-job-ready-graduates-for-students-must-be-brought-to-a-quick-end-heres-how-183808">The inequity of Job-ready Graduates for students must be brought to a quick end. Here's how</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>What these positive statistics do not tell us, however, is the working conditions of those employed. </p>
<p>The arts are the original gig economy. Of the over 80% of arts and humanities graduates employed six months after graduation, how many earn a living wage? How many work in the arts? How many recent creative arts graduates are juggling multiple short-term contracts simultaneously to build skills, grow networks and cope with cost of living increases? </p>
<p>As Australia’s labour market tightens, arts workers are realising they can take their skills to better paid jobs with secure contracts, in fields such as health, technology and management consulting. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495220/original/file-20221114-19-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A staff meeting" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495220/original/file-20221114-19-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495220/original/file-20221114-19-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495220/original/file-20221114-19-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495220/original/file-20221114-19-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495220/original/file-20221114-19-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495220/original/file-20221114-19-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495220/original/file-20221114-19-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Arts workers are finding their skills are in demand in other industries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jason Goodman/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unless arts organisations respond by providing similar security and career paths, the departure of talented workers will only continue. </p>
<p>This loss of staff will not only impact the ability of organisations to operate today, but will also influence the make-up of arts organisations in the future. </p>
<p>When only those who can afford to work under precarious conditions remain, the ability of the sector to attract and retain leaders from diverse communities <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news/features/how-do-we-stop-losing-artists-from-the-sector-2578669/">decreases</a>. </p>
<h2>Decent work</h2>
<p>Arts leaders eagerly await the launch of a new <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-national-cultural-policy-is-an-opportunity-for-a-radical-rethinking-of-the-importance-of-culture-in-australia-188720">National Cultural Policy</a>, hoping for significant change in how the arts are valued. </p>
<p>Yet arts organisations need to also get their own house in order. </p>
<p>Sustainable arts careers mean <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-crisis-of-a-career-in-culture-why-sustaining-a-livelihood-in-the-arts-is-so-hard-171732">decent work</a>. This means structural changes in how arts workers are employed, a shift away from the reliance on volunteers and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/why-is-a-major-sydney-arts-festival-working-with-google-to-offer-an-unpaid-internship-20220516-p5als1.html">incorrect appointment of unpaid interns</a>, low-wage casual or fixed-term roles to more secure and fairly paid employment. </p>
<p>Many in the sector are championing change. The National Association for the Visual Arts is campaigning to <a href="https://visualarts.net.au/news-opinion/2022/recognise-artists-workers/">recognise artists as workers</a>, highlighting the need for an award to support this group that often falls under the industrial relations radar. The music sector has made similar calls for minimum wages for artists, <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/paying-musicians-a-minimum-wage-would-kill-live-music-tote-owner-20220923-p5bkgw.html">yet face critics</a>. </p>
<p>The pandemic showed us how important the arts are to our lives. For the arts to continue to play a vital role in our national identity and represent our diverse communities, the sector must be funded appropriately. </p>
<p>It is also essential organisations create safe, secure and viable jobs for arts workers. </p>
<p>If the industry can only exist by systematically exploiting workers, then the war for talent will be lost. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tony-burkes-double-ministry-of-arts-and-industrial-relations-could-be-just-what-the-arts-sector-needs-183623">Tony Burke's double ministry of arts and industrial relations could be just what the arts sector needs</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194174/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kim Goodwin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For a long time, arts organisations retained staff attracted to the ‘romance of being creative’. That’s no longer enough.Kim Goodwin, Lecturer, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1670552021-10-12T04:04:49Z2021-10-12T04:04:49ZHow AI can guide course design and study choices to help graduates get the jobs they want<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425374/original/file-20211008-13-120p8it.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C6000%2C3979&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Graduates entering an ever-more-competitive job market are often unaware of the skills and values they offer employers. The challenge is greater with emerging job roles that require certifications and both multidisciplinary skills and specialist knowledge, even for entry-level positions. </p>
<p>We seek to empower our graduates and maximise their career prospects. New research has enabled us to harness the power of artificial intelligence for a custom-designed course planning and recommendation system for students based on the skills their desired jobs actually require. We named these curriculum delivery models JobFit and ModuLearn. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/migration-is-a-quick-fix-for-skills-shortages-building-on-australians-skills-is-better-159207">Migration is a quick fix for skills shortages. Building on Australians' skills is better</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>JobFit: a career-driven curriculum</h2>
<p>JobFit builds on a simple premise of informing students about the skills they will gain by completing a knowledge unit. This helps students to analyse skills gained from an individual study pathway and how these relate to career prospects. </p>
<p>Students can explore and experiment with various pathways. This “what if?” analysis is tailored to their career goals and knowledge preferences. The system monitors their study progress and proactively offers alternative pathways to maximise their acquisition of skills related to their goals. </p>
<p>We base the skills on recognised frameworks. For science, technology and business, we use the Skills for Information Age (<a href="https://sfia-online.org/en">SFIA</a>) framework version 8, defining 121 skills, each on seven different levels. </p>
<p>For example, performing a basic risk assessment in an organisation requires “<a href="https://sfia-online.org/en/sfia-7/skills/information-security">information security</a>” skill at the lowest level. At the highest level it enables the person to design organisational and governmental policies assuring global information security. </p>
<p>Governments and organisations in <a href="https://sfia-online.org/en/tools-and-resources/standard-industry-skills-profiles/australian-public-service/aps-digital-career-pathways">Australia</a>, <a href="https://sfia-online.org/en/tools-and-resources/standard-industry-skills-profiles/usa-national-initiative-for-cybersecurity-education-nice-work-roles">United States</a>, <a href="https://sfia-online.org/en/tools-and-resources/standard-industry-skills-profiles/uk-government-ddat-roles">United Kingdom</a> and <a href="https://sfia-online.org/en/tools-and-resources/standard-industry-skills-profiles/european-union">European Union</a> have created datasets using SFIA skills to define desired job profiles. </p>
<p>Drawing on these datasets, we designed a <a href="https://employability-tomitrescak.vercel.app/">prototypical course-planning tool</a>. (To login, please provide your email and role you would like to play in the system. A password is not required.) Western Sydney University students can use it to explore their skill compatibility with ICT job roles. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425135/original/file-20211006-25-ey272.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing employability ratings for various IT job roles based on skills acquired by students" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425135/original/file-20211006-25-ey272.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425135/original/file-20211006-25-ey272.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=230&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425135/original/file-20211006-25-ey272.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=230&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425135/original/file-20211006-25-ey272.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=230&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425135/original/file-20211006-25-ey272.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425135/original/file-20211006-25-ey272.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425135/original/file-20211006-25-ey272.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students can see their employability rating for various job roles based on the skills they acquire.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The chart above shows the compatibility with general role profiles, for Bachelor of ICT students considering junior-level positions. The video below shows the possibilities of this tool.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6hXXaY4V0cc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The author explains how students can match the skills they acquire with the jobs they desire.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This approach has several benefits. First, students understand how their studies develop their skills. They can then set career-driven goals and make well-informed decisions about their study pathways. </p>
<p>Solid understanding of skills and knowing how to express these in CVs and cover letters are increasingly important. This is because human resource departments are adopting <a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8215662/">automated approaches</a> to search for and filter out candidates, using algorithmic processing and text mining. </p>
<p>We can use SFIA to express skills in technology-related areas. However, it does not apply to other areas such as engineering, human sciences, law or medicine. </p>
<p>We are looking at acquiring data from an <a href="https://www.burning-glass.com/">external partner</a> to analyse and process required skills from live job offers across all industries. We will then be able to inform students on the quantity, variety and compatibility of actual job offers in any industry based on their knowledge profile. </p>
<p>This approach will also benefit curriculum designers facing the challenges of new subjects being rapidly introduced to maintain an advantage over competitors. The result is often an incoherent curriculum, particularly when it comes to meeting industry and employer needs. </p>
<p>A lack of understanding of what skills are desired in the job market and ad-hoc additions have led to programs that do not provide clear study pathways and relevance to work roles. Our model allows curriculum designers to analyse and validate their curriculum against job market needs.</p>
<p>Last, working with industry partners, we defined custom job profiles for the industry area of interest and locality. Students who target such custom skill sets are in a stronger position when applying for work with an industry partner.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419673/original/file-20210906-21-1rvneva.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="screen shot of the curriculum design system that students can use to ensure their skills are compatible with their desired jobs" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419673/original/file-20210906-21-1rvneva.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419673/original/file-20210906-21-1rvneva.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419673/original/file-20210906-21-1rvneva.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419673/original/file-20210906-21-1rvneva.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419673/original/file-20210906-21-1rvneva.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419673/original/file-20210906-21-1rvneva.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/419673/original/file-20210906-21-1rvneva.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The system helps guide students in choosing units of study that provide skills to match their desired jobs.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-work-integrated-learning-helps-to-make-billions-in-uni-funding-worth-it-166017">How work-integrated learning helps to make billions in uni funding worth it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>ModuLearn: promoting cross-disciplinary skills</h2>
<p>Informing students on the skills they are acquiring is only half of the job. A student must also acquire all their desired skills in a relatively short period. </p>
<p>In undergraduate degrees, much of the course is typically pre-defined with core subjects. Students are often left with only one or two semesters to focus their knowledge on particular employers’ desired skill set. It’s even more of problem in shorter courses such as diplomas or certificates.</p>
<p>It’s likely too that a student’s faculty or school does not offer some critical skills. Students are often reluctant to study in a different school or faculty, fearing the challenge of a new environment.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425376/original/file-20211008-16-1azv8r9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Charles Sturt University's Topic Tree" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425376/original/file-20211008-16-1azv8r9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425376/original/file-20211008-16-1azv8r9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425376/original/file-20211008-16-1azv8r9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425376/original/file-20211008-16-1azv8r9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425376/original/file-20211008-16-1azv8r9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1349&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425376/original/file-20211008-16-1azv8r9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1349&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425376/original/file-20211008-16-1azv8r9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1349&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Charles Sturt University’s Topic Tree offers a dizzying array of choices, but artificial intelligence can help.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.csu.edu.au/engineering/curriculum">Charles Sturt University</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To overcome these issues, we looked at ways to increase the variety and number of knowledge units with diverse skills. We found inspiration in Charles Sturt University’s <a href="https://www.csu.edu.au/engineering/curriculum">Engineering Topic Tree</a>. It allows students to customise their degree by choosing from over 1,000 different topics. Topics are organised by disciplines, with well-organised prerequisites and pathways. </p>
<p>What this topic tree lacks is the backing of technology that allows students to easily explore all their options. We built on the topic tree idea and designed skill-informed modules. These are study units usually lasting two to eight weeks. Each module clearly defines the skills required as prerequisites and the skills it delivers. </p>
<p>An intertwined network of modules delivers fundamental and applied knowledge but each module requires less of a commitment from students than semester-long subjects. We hope in this way to encourage students to study across disciplines. </p>
<p>However, managing all the possible module combinations, prerequisites and user preferences is a significant technological challenge. This called for novel research, not just an application of existing AI approaches. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/artificial-intelligence-is-now-part-of-our-everyday-lives-and-its-growing-power-is-a-double-edged-sword-169449">Artificial intelligence is now part of our everyday lives – and its growing power is a double-edged sword</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Working with the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (<a href="https://iiia.csic.es/en-us/">IIIA</a>) in Barcelona, we developed technological means to design and maintain a module-based curriculum for both curriculum designers and students. Delivery models can be adapted to different public or private financing options and educational standards, such as the Australian Qualifications Framework (<a href="https://www.aqf.edu.au/">AQF</a>). </p>
<p>Curriculum development tends to lag behind technology development and shifting market needs. Ideally, curriculum development should be more responsive and future-focused rather than reactive. With smaller modules instead of semester-long subjects, it is possible to adapt much more quickly to ever-changing job market needs.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>I would like to acknowledge the rest of our team, Professor Juan Antonio Rodriguez and Dr Filippo Bistafa from IIIA, Spain, Ms Lynn Berry, Professor Simeon Simoff and Professor Andrew Francis from Western Sydney University.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167055/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tomas Trescak does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Artificial intelligence makes it possible to create a highly adaptable, module-based curriculum backed by a system that actively guides students’ choices based on their desired jobs.Tomas Trescak, Senior Lecturer in Intelligent Systems, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1660172021-08-30T01:58:27Z2021-08-30T01:58:27ZHow work-integrated learning helps to make billions in uni funding worth it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417494/original/file-20210824-17-p33et.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5751%2C3828&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-man-working-international-company-businesswoman-1020211993">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australian universities invest heavily in the employability of their graduates. The Australian government <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/job-ready">supports this goal</a> with annual funding to increase to A$20 billion by 2024. This includes $900 million in grants through the <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/job-ready/npilf">National Priorities and Industry Linkage Fund</a>. A key focus is on expanding <a href="https://myfuture.edu.au/career-articles/details/what-is-work-integrated-learning">work-integrated learning</a>.</p>
<p>Work-integrated learning (WIL) includes internships, fieldwork and placements, but also on-campus work projects. In these settings, students solve business problems, implement innovations and manage uncertainties. This makes it a <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/10289/13896">practice-based approach</a>.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://acen.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/National-WIL-Strategy-in-university-education-032015.pdf?x97547">National Strategy on Work-Integrated Learning in University Education</a>, it should provide authentic, meaningful and relevant experiences to prepare students for the workplace.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/work-integrated-learning-why-is-it-increasing-and-who-benefits-93642">Work Integrated Learning: why is it increasing and who benefits?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The question today is no longer whether to offer work-integrated learning, but how to do it well. </p>
<h2>A digitally driven shift in focus</h2>
<p>Teaching for workplace readiness must make the transition to digital so learning does not depend on location. </p>
<p>As recently as 2017, <a href="https://internationaleducation.gov.au/international-network/australia/InternationalStrategy/EGIProjects/Documents/WIL%20in%20universities%20-%20final%20report%20April%202019.pdf">52.7% of all work-integrated learning was off-campus</a>. But limited places, especially during <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8462.12405">COVID-19 economic downturns</a>, mean fewer students get a practice-based experience.</p>
<p>Digitalising work-integrated learning makes it available for many more students. </p>
<p>The University of Sydney program <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/business/study/careers-and-employability/job-smart.html">Job Start Edge</a>, for example, offers international students workplace skill learning in fully digital form. Other universities work with talent platforms such as <a href="https://www.theforage.com/">Forage</a> to offer “micro internships” of 5-6 hours.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1429618145015312390"}"></div></p>
<p>Another model is to bring workplace practice to students, instead of the students to practice. The insourcing model provides work readiness in a digital classroom.</p>
<p>The University of New South Wales’ <a href="https://www.unsw.edu.au/business/sites/default/files/documents/Sandbox%20Edu.pdf">Sandbox Education Program</a>, for example, digitally simulates a professional working environment. By bringing real-world scenarios and problems into the classroom, it offers a safe space to build and test workplace readiness.</p>
<p>Digital on-campus models provide learning that is <a href="https://ro.uow.edu.au/jutlp/vol18/iss5/2/">resilient to lockdowns</a> and working from home. Universities with simulated work integration in the classroom continued the learning even during the <a href="https://blogs.sw.siemens.com/podcasts/innovation-in-the-classroom/technology-trends-and-teaching-during-a-pandemic/">peak of COVID-19</a>. The digital transition has enabled learning anytime and anywhere.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-improve-internships-and-placements-embed-technology-in-their-design-97250">To improve internships and placements, embed technology in their design</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Delivering concrete benefits for industry</h2>
<p>Industry partners are essential for showing students the dynamics of real workplaces. Fortunately, broad support from industry exists. The <a href="https://www.aigroup.com.au/business-services/governmentprograms/SA-defence-industry-scholarships/wil/">Australian Industry Group</a> invites its members to join these partnerships. </p>
<p>This was not always so. <a href="https://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/sites/default/files/NCVER_WIL-employer-perspectives.pdf">Employers</a> were once hesitant to commit time and resources as university partners. Gaining access to fit-for-purpose talent was simply not enough incentive. </p>
<p>The motivation changed when work-integrated learning outcomes began to deliver concrete benefits. Then students produce ready-to-use products or services of value.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-research-when-universities-and-industry-team-up-156590">How to get the most out of research when universities and industry team up</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For example, at <a href="https://employability.uq.edu.au/work-integrated-learning">The University of Queensland</a>, we pioneered the concrete delivery model in an information systems project with <a href="https://new.siemens.com/global/en/company/about/businesses/digital-industries.html">Siemens Digital Industries</a> and <a href="https://www.variety.org.au/qld/">Variety – the Children’s Charity of Queensland</a>. </p>
<p>Variety wanted a safe digital space for its vulnerable children to stay connected, especially during lockdowns. It also required an events management feature for post-lockdown times. </p>
<p>Students developed the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/isj.12108">software app</a> using the low-code development platform <a href="https://www.mendix.com/">Mendix</a>. Kids in Variety programs such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JR_vC7Outw">Kids Choir</a> and Youth Ambassadors now use the app to plan and chat.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6JR_vC7Outw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Variety Kids Choir is an inclusive choir for kids aged 7 to 17 of all abilities.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The concrete delivery model directly benefits Australian businesses. The transferable value makes partnerships more attractive.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-improve-research-training-in-australia-give-industry-placements-to-phd-students-57972">How to improve research training in Australia – give industry placements to PhD students</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Making sure of quality outcomes</h2>
<p>Large-scale work-integrated learning initiatives exist. Swinburne University of Technology has <a href="https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/12/swinburne-offers-real-industry-experience-to-all-undergraduate-students-from-2021/">announced</a> it will offer work-integrated learning to all undergraduate degree students. At this scale, effective governance with defined quality standards and output measures is imperative.</p>
<p>Universities and educational groups have developed such systems. The University of Waterloo, Canada, developed a <a href="https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-advancement-co-operative-education/research-publications/wil-quality-framework">work-integrated learning quality framework</a> to govern quality internally. The <a href="https://acen.edu.au/resources/practical-guidelines-for-using-the-framework-to-assure-institutional-quality-of-work-integrated-learning-wil/">Australian Collaborative Education Network</a> provides a framework for member universities to control process and product quality.</p>
<p>When applied comprehensively, these frameworks provide transparency on the use of WIL funding.</p>
<p>Governance systems also enhance educators’ accountability for investments by industry partners. The University of Tasmania, for example, developed an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09639284.2021.1963994">evaluation tool</a> to identify areas for curriculum improvement.</p>
<p>High-quality learning experiences depend on excellent teaching. Effective governance systems can ensure it’s delivered.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Teachers lead a discussion by students around a table" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417509/original/file-20210824-17-1dk0j5y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417509/original/file-20210824-17-1dk0j5y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417509/original/file-20210824-17-1dk0j5y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417509/original/file-20210824-17-1dk0j5y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417509/original/file-20210824-17-1dk0j5y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417509/original/file-20210824-17-1dk0j5y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417509/original/file-20210824-17-1dk0j5y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Excellent teaching remains essential for high-quality workplace-integrated learning.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/search/Business+Team+Meeting+Project+Planning+Concept">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-university-education-is-being-reimagined-in-response-to-covid-19-144052">5 ways university education is being reimagined in response to COVID-19</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Creating infrastructure to support work-integrated learning</h2>
<p>Early WIL efforts focused on creating boutique-style learning for small cohorts of students. This teaching format <a href="https://acen.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Work-Integrated-Learning-Workload-and-Recognition-Review.pdf?x71956">places high demands</a> on educators. The demands will increase as we expand work-integrated learning.</p>
<p>The government’s funding under the <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/job-ready">Job-ready Graduates Package</a> aims to increase the number and variety of WIL programs. Not surprisingly, universities are ramping up their efforts to meet government funding requirements. This is a risky strategy.</p>
<p>The delivery of more boutique-style programs is not sustainable in the long term. A mental shift is required to focus on creating infrastructure for large-scale work-integrated learning. </p>
<p>For example, Monash University provides an <a href="https://www.monash.edu/learning-teaching/priorities-and-programs/programs-for-students/wil-at-monash/initiate">academic tool kit</a> with the fundamental building blocks for work-integrated learning. Educators save time and effort as they only need to contextualise the blocks for a particular initiative.</p>
<p>The essential elements for work-integrated learning to be done well include:</p>
<ul>
<li>the experience is authentic for all students </li>
<li>all stakeholders receive concrete benefits</li>
<li>teaching frameworks must be adaptable</li>
<li>governance systems ensure this all happens.</li>
</ul>
<p>Then work-integrated learning is worth the government’s investment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166017/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sabine Matook was the lecturer for the university course and as such interacted with the industry partners, particularly representatives from Variety Queensland and Mendix. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angie Knaggs does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The question for universities is no longer whether to offer work-integrated learning but how to do it well, especially now that digital technology has expanded the scale of what is possible.Sabine Matook, Associate Professor in Information Systems, The University of QueenslandAngie Knaggs, Senior Education Manager, Business, Economics and Law Faculty (Employability), The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1647852021-07-30T04:14:59Z2021-07-30T04:14:59Z3 things we need to get right to ensure online professional development works<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413257/original/file-20210727-13-1120kfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6048%2C4010&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/multiracial-business-people-gathered-together-online-1857569854">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One thing the COVID-19 pandemic has not changed is the need for employee training and skills development. Although lockdowns have reduced access to offices and <a href="https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/news-room/press-releases/2021/pwc-hopes-and-fears-survey-2021.html">increased job insecurity</a>, they have provided the time and opportunity for building skills. Demand for professional development <a href="https://staff.unimelb.edu.au/mspace/horizon/impact-of-covid-19-economic-downturn">has grown</a>.</p>
<p>However, since early 2020, the only option for employees to upskill has been through remote learning. Training and development specialists have been working tirelessly to adapt programs and courses for online delivery. For most, this has meant replacing face-to-face workshops with dial-in sessions using teleconferencing software. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, these changes have <a href="https://tmb.apaopen.org/pub/nonverbal-overload/release/1">not always been effective</a>. In other cases, employees have been applying their own personal, informal learning methods to develop professionally. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/digital-technology-and-the-rise-of-new-informal-learning-methods-126813">Digital technology and the rise of new informal learning methods</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In comparison, the global online education sector has steadily and organically expanded over the past 25 years. It’s set to <a href="https://www.guide2research.com/research/online-education-statistics">become mainstream sooner than expected</a>. The characteristics of online learning, which can connect a larger and more diverse student body, make it truly scalable and sustainable. </p>
<p>Thankfully, we can draw on decades of research evidence from online education to deliver professional development effectively online. This research shows three of the most important things to consider are flexibility, accessibility and social connectedness. </p>
<h2>Make flexible learning a priority</h2>
<p>Online education is <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2017.00059/full">growing rapidly because of its flexibility</a>. Students can study from wherever, whenever. This means they can maintain roles such as work, parenting and other commitments alongside their studies. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Parents sits with young child on lap in front of laptop as he studies online" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413253/original/file-20210727-23-dsrsw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413253/original/file-20210727-23-dsrsw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413253/original/file-20210727-23-dsrsw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413253/original/file-20210727-23-dsrsw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413253/original/file-20210727-23-dsrsw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413253/original/file-20210727-23-dsrsw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413253/original/file-20210727-23-dsrsw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many people undertaking professional development courses must juggle other responsibilities too.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/parent-child-studying-remotely-homebased-laptop-1529712827">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Flexible online learning is erasing traditional boundaries of time and place.
To provide flexibility in professional development, learning should no longer be restricted to a single day and venue. A combination of scheduled and self-paced learning options provides collaborative and independent learning opportunities as needed. </p>
<p>Flexible learning options work best for learners who can stick to their learning plans and schedules and dedicate their attention to these tasks without distractions. Employers can support flexible learning by respecting these learning plans. This means allowing employees to schedule work around their learning. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-7-elements-of-a-good-online-course-139736">The 7 elements of a good online course</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Ensure accessibility for all</h2>
<p>A more diverse student body calls for more inclusive teaching and learning practices. The best examples of online education offer all students the same opportunities to do well. </p>
<p>Both learning material and learning management systems need to be reliable and accessible to all. That includes people who are living in remote parts of the country, those who cannot leave the home due to family commitments, or students with special needs who require learning resources to be created that take account of these needs.</p>
<p>Similarly, the use of online learning technology for professional development should act as a learning enabler, not a learning barrier. Advanced learning technology and software – learning management systems such as Moodle, for example – can bring both accessibility and innovation to professional development. It makes for a smoother and more engaging learning environment.</p>
<p>Organisations may need to invest in accessible learning technology – just as they would invest in creating accessible and inclusive office spaces. <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/making-online-learning-accessible-students-disabilities">Guidelines</a> are readily available to help trainers make online learning content accessible and engaging.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/massive-online-open-courses-see-exponential-growth-during-covid-19-pandemic-141859">Massive online open courses see exponential growth during COVID-19 pandemic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Foster connections between learners</h2>
<p>Finally, learning remotely, like working remotely, can be isolating. Creating meaningful opportunities to nurture a sense of belonging and connectedness among students is a challenge for online educators. But the benefits of social connectedness are worth the effort. It’s <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2017.00059/full">associated with</a> greater academic performance, self-confidence, engagement, retention and satisfaction. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young woman at a desk chats to a group in an online meeting via her laptop" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413252/original/file-20210727-15-189xocg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413252/original/file-20210727-15-189xocg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413252/original/file-20210727-15-189xocg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413252/original/file-20210727-15-189xocg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413252/original/file-20210727-15-189xocg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413252/original/file-20210727-15-189xocg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413252/original/file-20210727-15-189xocg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Promoting social connectedness should be a priority in online learning because of its many benefits.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/rear-back-view-happy-young-female-1854698215">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Students who opt for the flexibility of online education are often time-poor or juggling multiple competing demands. They prioritise their goal of learning over their social needs. </p>
<p>For this reason, relying on these students to initiate interaction through social forums can often be ineffective. Rather, trainers should embed social collaboration in core online learning activities. </p>
<p>Activities that involve collaboration include peer review and simulation tasks. Online meetings and workshops should also be designed to capitalise on the interplay of learning and dialogue. </p>
<p>Activities like these ensure participants can maintain focus on learning goals while reaping the benefits of social interaction.</p>
<h2>Online professional development is here to stay</h2>
<p>Universities are expanding their educational offerings for professional development. They now offer affordable, accredited and verifiable online study options such as short courses and <a href="https://www.candlefox.com/blog/micro-credentials-the-provider-handbook/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=marketing%20cloud&utm_campaign=Candlefox+AU+April+2021+Newsletter">micro-credentials</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-learning-economy-challenges-unis-to-be-part-of-reshaping-lifelong-education-144800">New learning economy challenges unis to be part of reshaping lifelong education</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These courses bridge the gap between higher education and industry needs – bringing a high standard of learning and innovation directly to employees, without the costs of travel or relocation. </p>
<p>The investments universities and other organisations are making in e-learning capabilities mean online professional development is here to stay.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164785/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Demand for professional development has grown but the pandemic has forced it online. Decades of evidence from online education tells us how to ensure professional development remains effective.Filia Garivaldis, Senior Lecturer, BehaviourWorks Australia, Monash UniversitySarah Kneebone, Education & Training Manager, BehaviourWorks Australia, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1633362021-07-28T18:41:46Z2021-07-28T18:41:46Z4 ways that volunteering can be good for you<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413166/original/file-20210726-26-3kr9sz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=79%2C28%2C3703%2C2082&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Volunteering to pitch in during Breast Cancer Awareness Week may have also helped these Bethune-Cookman University students.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/girls-and-boys-signing-up-for-breast-cancer-awareness-week-news-photo/929102074">Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>More than 77 million Americans <a href="https://americorps.gov/newsroom/news/via">volunteer a total of 6.9 billion hours</a> a year doing everything from fighting fires to raising funds for cancer research. These efforts help others and support communities. But volunteering also tends to benefit the volunteers themselves in at least four different ways, explains nonprofit management scholar <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=svGb9ZEAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Jennifer A. Jones</a>.</em></p>
<h2>1. Boosting your health, especially if you assist others</h2>
<p>Volunteering has long been associated with good <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2013-12313-001.html">mental and physical health</a>, particularly for older people. In a long-term study, researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that volunteering was <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/002214650704800408">linked to psychological well-being</a>, and the volunteers themselves said it was good for their own health.</p>
<p>While anyone can benefit from volunteering, people who are the least connected to others tend to benefit the most. In fact, the benefits are so strong that researchers have suggested public health officials educate the public to consider <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4561-8">volunteering as part of a healthy lifestyle</a>.</p>
<p>One study in particular looked into which kind of volunteering may be best for your health. When a team of social scientists combed through data collected in Texas, they found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4561-8">people who volunteered in ways that benefited others</a> tended to get a bigger physical health boost than volunteers who were pitching in for their own sake. They also benefited in terms of their mental health, such as by experiencing fewer symptoms of depression and becoming more satisfied with their lives.</p>
<p>That is, serving meals at a soup kitchen might be better for your health than doing unpaid shifts as an usher in exchange for free theater tickets. </p>
<h2>2. Making more connections</h2>
<p>Volunteering, especially when it’s done on a regular basis, can help you make new acquaintances. Whether you volunteer for an organization on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, over time you are bound to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1759-5436.12173">develop strong relationships</a>, typically with other volunteers and staff members.</p>
<p>Regular volunteers may get these benefits to a greater degree than people who volunteer sporadically, known as <a href="http://www.handsonmaui.com/episodic-volunteering/">episodic volunteers</a>. Consider this: Handing out water at a fundraising run in April and then helping bag groceries to give away in November is surely easier to squeeze into a busy schedule than volunteering regularly in an office. But those more convenient activities aren’t as likely to help you build relationships over time. In other words, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/002214650704800408">consistency matters</a>. </p>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.energizeinc.com/store/volunteer_management_mobilizing_all_resources_community">benefits and drawbacks to every type of volunteering</a>. For example, volunteering once in a while is often easy to schedule and is something families or friends can do together. However, volunteers who pitch in occasionally may not feel very connected to the mission of the nonprofits they support or get to know many other volunteers.</p>
<p>Regularly volunteering, on the other hand, makes it more likely that you will develop a deep relationship to the cause and to other staff and volunteers. However, this kind of volunteering requires a longer-term and bigger time commitment. It can also become frustrating if the volunteer’s duties aren’t a good fit for them. </p>
<p>Still, if people are willing to work toward finding the right fit and making time in their schedules, volunteering on a regular basis can help them get more out of their efforts, including new friends and acquaintances. </p>
<h2>3. Preparing for career moves</h2>
<p>When volunteers gain and strengthen skills and meet more people, it can help them find new paid work by <a href="https://www.americorps.gov/evidence-exchange/Volunteering-as-a-Pathway-to-Employment%3A-Does-Volunteering-Increase-Odds-of-Finding-a-Job-for-the-Out-of-Work%3F**">honing their social and job skills</a> and expanding their professional contacts.</p>
<p>Especially if you’re unemployed or eager to get a new job, you may want to volunteer in ways that are more likely to fill gaps in your resume or help you network with people who can help advance your career. For example, you can learn leadership and governance skills by volunteering on a board of directors at your local food pantry and, at the same time, network with other board members.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Alternatively, you can volunteer for an organization in your field, whether it’s health care, child care or accounting, as a way of staying current and active while looking for work. </p>
<p>Including volunteer work on your resume can also signal to a prospective employer that you’re community-minded, self-motivated and willing to go above and beyond. As I often see with my students who volunteer, close relationships with nonprofit staff can lead to job referrals and glowing letters of recommendation.</p>
<h2>4. Reducing some risks associated with aging</h2>
<p>Older people who engage in mentally stimulating leisure activities on a regular basis may have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1041610216001137">better memory and executive function</a> than those who don’t, according to an analysis of related studies.</p>
<p>And because volunteers may need to tackle new problems, interact with clients and staff or drive to a new location, volunteering can be a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbx134">highly stimulating leisure activity</a>. </p>
<p>Volunteering can also help older people feel valued. For example, nonprofits can encourage older volunteers to become mentors – giving them a chance to impart what they’ve learned from their life and career experiences.</p>
<p><em>Visit <a href="https://www.volunteer.gov/s/">Volunteer.gov</a> and <a href="https://www.volunteermatch.org/">VolunteerMatch.com</a> or connect with a community foundation, nonprofit resource center and a regional United Way to find volunteer opportunities.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163336/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer A. Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Volunteering can improve your life physically, mentally and emotionally. And it might help you find your next job.Jennifer A. Jones, Assistant Professor of Nonprofit Management and Leadership, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1592072021-04-21T05:38:25Z2021-04-21T05:38:25ZMigration is a quick fix for skills shortages. Building on Australians’ skills is better<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395918/original/file-20210420-23-1be4a4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C9%2C6221%2C4100&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/team-mechanic-engineers-face-mask-celebrate-1809222430">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Prime Minister Scott Morrison has <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/address-wa-chamber-commerce-and-industry">highlighted</a> workforce skills as the “single biggest challenge facing the Australian economy” in recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. <a href="https://cciwa.com/business-pulse/skills-shortages-top-concern-for-wa-businesses/">Employer surveys</a> also show it’s a top concern.</p>
<p>Adding to these concerns is an <a href="https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/morrison-net-overseas-migration-to-fall-by-85-per-cent-in-2021/video/0ef7c3ef6575c7e4af3aeac9cd98fbc2">expected 85% fall in net overseas migration in 2020-21</a> from 2018-19 levels because of COVID-related border closures. The Committee for Economic Development of Australia (<a href="https://www.ceda.com.au/About">CEDA</a>) has stressed the urgency of increased and more flexible temporary and permanent migration as global competition for skills and talent intensifies in the post-pandemic recovery. Australia also risks losing talented individuals to more attractive destinations.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/there-may-not-be-enough-skilled-workers-in-australias-pipeline-for-a-post-covid-19-recovery-140061">There may not be enough skilled workers in Australia's pipeline for a post-COVID-19 recovery</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Federal Immigration Minister Alex Hawke is more optimistic. He <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/immigration-minister-says-australia-s-reputation-as-migrant-destination-not-harmed-by-coronavirus-pandemic">says</a> the pandemic hasn’t harmed Australia’s reputation as a migrant destination. At a <a href="https://events.ceda.com.au/Events/Library/Past-Events1/LS210420">CEDA livestream discussion</a> yesterday, Hawke said migration would be crucial for Australia’s recovery from the pandemic.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1384328366061277186"}"></div></p>
<p>What is being overlooked in this debate is that, as a recent <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/skills-workforce-agreement/report">Productivity Commission report</a> notes, Australia might not really have a skills shortage. Rather, the problem is a skills mismatch. </p>
<h2>Why migration matters now</h2>
<p>Australia typically relies on immigration for almost <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/national-state-and-territory-population/latest-release">two-thirds of its population growth</a>, and skilled migrants are an important source of talent.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-17/wa-border-restrictions-creating-skills-shortages-for-business/13061886">COVID-related closures</a> of national and state borders added to the problems of industry sectors that rely on temporary and permanent migrants to overcome skills shortages. Many have had trouble finding workers (e.g. fruit-picking) or will have trouble as the economy recovers (e.g. hospitality, digital and data opportunities).</p>
<p>CEDA recently launched <a href="https://www.ceda.com.au/ResearchAndPolicies/Research/Population/A-good-match-Optimising-Australia-s-permanent-skil">a report</a> calling for an increase in permanent skilled migration. This report and a <a href="https://www.ceda.com.au/ResearchAndPolicies/Research/Population/Effects-of-temporary-migration">2019 CEDA report</a> aim to show recent waves of migrants have not reduced wages or jobs of Australian-born workers. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1161561395550232577"}"></div></p>
<p>CEDA’s latest report calls on the federal government to:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>set up a government-regulated online platform for matching skills to jobs</p></li>
<li><p>update the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations Codes to ensure people with essential or cutting-edge skills can immigrate</p></li>
<li><p>be more transparent about how it assesses what occupations are in demand and included on the skilled occupation lists.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>CEDA describes the Global Talent Scheme (<a href="https://www.globalaustralia.gov.au/">GTS</a>) as “very restrictive”. Minister Hawke acknowledged post-COVID Australia’s migration policies have to be more flexible and responsive. He pointed to the increased GTS intake of 15,000 spots in 2020-21, a tripling of last year’s allocation. </p>
<p>Yet the shape and make-up of the migration program remain unclear. Questions during yesterday’s discussion elicited few new details.</p>
<h2>What are the issues with this approach?</h2>
<p>According to the Productivity Commission, the way to modernise and grow the economy is via the <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/ongoing/productivity-insights/2015-/2-contributions-to-output-and-income-growth">three Ps: population, participation and productivity</a>. As well as the population impacts of migration, CEDA claims to be offering solutions for both participation, as skilled migrants have “lower unemployment rates and higher labour-force participation rates”, and productivity, as skilled migrants are younger and contribute to human capital accumulation.</p>
<p>In practice, increased migration works by growing the population, increasing numbers of taxpayers and producing so-called spillover effects in housing, retail and domestic tourism etc. </p>
<p>CEDA cites an <a href="https://crawford.anu.edu.au/files/uploads/crawford01_cap_anu_edu_au/2015-12/dibp_final_report.pdf">Australian National University study</a> that found migrants account for 7% of the average rate of labour productivity growth between 1994–95 and 2007–08. However, the Productivity Commission reports <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/ongoing/productivity-insights/recent-productivity-trends/productivity-insights-2020-productivity-trends.pdf">productivity has slowed</a> since the mid-2000s despite high migration. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.adelaide.edu.au/saces/ua/media/451/saces-economic-issues-52.pdf">Evidence</a> indicates employers are not nurturing talent from migration to its full potential. Nearly one in four permanent skilled migrants work in a job beneath their skill level. Research also highlights the need to tackle the disconnect between identified skills shortages and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-one-big-problem-with-australias-skilled-migration-program-many-employers-dont-want-new-migrants-125569">unwillingness of employers to employ new migrants</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1376262821357314052"}"></div></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-one-big-problem-with-australias-skilled-migration-program-many-employers-dont-want-new-migrants-125569">There's one big problem with Australia's skilled migration program: many employers don't want new migrants</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How to fix these problems</h2>
<p>The solutions CEDA proposes are largely quick fixes and echo previous recommendations from CEDA and employer groups like <a href="https://www.australianchamber.com.au/news/acute-skills-shortage-arising-from-blocked-migration-pipeline/">the Australian Chamber of Commerce</a>. Stop-gap government measures to help employers fill shortfalls include a <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/supporting-apprentices-and-trainees">50% wage subsidy</a> for apprentices or trainees and <a href="https://coronavirus.tas.gov.au/media-releases/tasmania-and-victoria-play-to-their-strengths">tailored quarantine arrangements for seasonal workers</a>. But the systemic problem of skills matching, leading to underemployment and unemployment, has been neglected. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1380028136021237763"}"></div></p>
<p>This problem is not unique to Australia. Migrants do essential work in many countries. <a href="https://publications.iom.int/books/covid-19-and-transformation-migration-and-mobility-globally-covid-19-and-systemic-resilience">Research</a> has found many countries have designated these migrants – including those typically considered “low-skilled” such as crop pickers, care assistants and hospital cleaners – as “key” or “essential” workers whose supply needs to be protected and even expanded during the health emergency. </p>
<p>In Australia, some analysts have pointed to the skills shortage as <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-19/verrender-the-great-skilled-worker-shortage-wages-oecd/100077706">a policy ruse</a> to distract attention from the lack of infrastructure investment to cope with rapid population growth as well as employers wishing to restrict wages growth.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/1-in-4-unemployed-australians-has-a-degree-how-did-we-get-to-this-point-156867">One in four unemployed Australians are graduates</a>. But Australian employers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/30/new-underclass-labor-warns-on-australias-reliance-on-short-term-migration">might not want to employ and train them</a> if they can get similarly skilled employees from overseas who are willing to work for lower pay. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/1-in-4-unemployed-australians-has-a-degree-how-did-we-get-to-this-point-156867">1 in 4 unemployed Australians has a degree. How did we get to this point?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The problem is worse among international graduates and students – <a href="https://www.unionsnsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/NWLB_survey_results_aug_2020.pdf">60% of the latter lost their jobs during the pandemic</a>. Yet they studied in universities and through VET providers that were supposedly providing them with the skills Australian employers need.</p>
<p>The Business Council of Australia (BCA) has recognised the need to improve skills matching and development. It has <a href="https://www.afr.com/business-summit/why-your-next-career-course-should-be-a-micro-apprenticeship-20210308-p578po">called for</a> a more flexible vocational education and training (VET) system that emphasises life-long learning with innovations like micro-apprenticeships. This allows for employees and apprentices to be rapidly trained and regularly upskilled in response to technology and market changes.</p>
<p>This is similar to <a href="https://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/2263137/MCSHE-Visions-for-Aust-Ter-Ed-web2.pdf">micro-credentials</a> – qualifications based on smaller blocks of learning. These can formalise soft and hard skills attained at work, such as teamwork, critical thinking and problem solving. They can also help fill skill gaps such as working with big data. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="man and woman working in robotics laboratory" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396190/original/file-20210421-21-1relpq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396190/original/file-20210421-21-1relpq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396190/original/file-20210421-21-1relpq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396190/original/file-20210421-21-1relpq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396190/original/file-20210421-21-1relpq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396190/original/file-20210421-21-1relpq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396190/original/file-20210421-21-1relpq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vocational education and training should focus on skills needed to capitalise on the opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/robotics-development-laboratory-chief-female-engineer-1837865740">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are other gaps in the CEDA proposals. For example, when the federal government announced its <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/data-and-publications/make-it-happen-the-australian-governments-modern-manufacturing-strategy">Modern Manufacturing Strategy</a> in October 2020, it recognised that not enough manufacturers have experience in scaling up in areas that provide good returns. Despite a brief mention of data scientists in regard to skilled occupation lists not being updated since 2013, the CEDA report largely focuses on traditional industries. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.ncver.edu.au/research-and-statistics/publications/all-publications/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-the-implications-of-technological-disruption-for-australian-vet">research</a> shows Australia needs to develop new skills in disruptive technologies to capitalise on the opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/jobs-are-changing-and-fast-heres-what-the-vet-sector-and-employers-need-to-do-to-keep-up-118524">Jobs are changing, and fast. Here's what the VET sector (and employers) need to do to keep up</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The pandemic has simply added to the urgency of increased collaboration between the higher education and VET sectors, employer organisations, industry and government to deliver more targeted and flexible skills development programs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159207/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While skilled migration can help fill short-term gaps, Australia needs a more sustainable, long-term approach to skills matching and development to make the most of the people who are already here.Pi-Shen Seet, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Edith Cowan UniversityJanice Jones, Associate Professor, College of Business, Government and Law, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1466232020-10-07T16:57:22Z2020-10-07T16:57:22ZGaining knowledge is what makes a degree valuable, not graduate salaries or transferable skills<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362169/original/file-20201007-14-1ty3vm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C3119%2C2068&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/focused-female-researcher-dropper-chemical-lab-144238711">PhotoSky/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The unexpected social and economic challenges brought by the coronavirus pandemic have given increased urgency to questions about the purposes of a university education and the kinds of graduates that society needs. Much of this debate has focused on the extent to which university degrees lead to graduate jobs and higher graduate salaries. </p>
<p>For example, in July, UK education secretary, Gavin Williamson, <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/902608/HERR_announcement_July_2020.pdf">announced</a> that financial support for universities affected by COVID-19 would be conditional on their <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/universities-courses-executive-pay-free-speech-covid-19-government-bailouts-545981">scrapping courses</a> that did not lead to skilled graduate jobs. </p>
<p>The implication of these announcements is that the central purpose of a university education is to produce employable, high-earning graduates.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/transforming-university-education-9781350157231/">My research</a> examines what a university education is for, the principles that should inform its design, and how its quality can effectively be measured. Rather than the employment and salaries of graduates, the central educational purpose of a university education is to transform students through their engagement with knowledge.</p>
<h2>Graduate premiums</h2>
<p>When discussing the purpose of higher education, UK politicians often talk about the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/graduates-continue-to-benefit-with-higher-earnings">graduate premium</a>. This is a measure of how much more university graduates earn than those who have not been to university. But there are a number of problems with understanding the quality of a degree in terms of graduate salaries. </p>
<p><a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-class-ceiling">Research has shown</a> that employment outcomes are far more of a measure of graduates’ level of social privilege than the quality of their degree. A students’ disability, ethnicity, gender, geographical location and social class will have more bearing on their employment than the particular degree course they study.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Group of young business people looking at documents" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362172/original/file-20201007-24-ds0vhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362172/original/file-20201007-24-ds0vhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362172/original/file-20201007-24-ds0vhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362172/original/file-20201007-24-ds0vhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362172/original/file-20201007-24-ds0vhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362172/original/file-20201007-24-ds0vhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362172/original/file-20201007-24-ds0vhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Factors such as ethnicity and social background have more influence on graduate employment than choice of degree.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/four-business-colleagues-working-together-smiling-75615916">Konstantin Chagin/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Basing the worth of a degree on graduate premiums assumes that higher education is only worthwhile because the qualification it provides leads to higher earnings. This overlooks whether there is something intrinsically valuable about higher education itself. From this viewpoint, if graduates did not earn more than non-graduates then it would not be worth going to university, regardless of its educational merits. </p>
<p>In addition, by focusing on the differences between the earnings of graduates and non-graduates, graduate premiums are a measure of economic inequality. There is something deeply wrong and depressing about measuring the quality of a university degree in terms of how much it contributes to inequality in society. </p>
<h2>Generic skills</h2>
<p>Some might respond that it is not the difference between the salaries of graduates and non-graduates that is important, but the gaining of transferable skills that make <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/education-secretary-sets-out-aims-for-higher-education">graduates employable</a>. These include problem solving and time management, as well as communication and analytical skills. Crucially, what graduates can do is described in generic rather than specific terms. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man standing in between library shelves reading book" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362170/original/file-20201007-16-1qwxh6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362170/original/file-20201007-16-1qwxh6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362170/original/file-20201007-16-1qwxh6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362170/original/file-20201007-16-1qwxh6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362170/original/file-20201007-16-1qwxh6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362170/original/file-20201007-16-1qwxh6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362170/original/file-20201007-16-1qwxh6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students are fundamentally changed by their engagement with knowledge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-student-reading-book-between-shelves-264169130">Song_about_summer/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This way of thinking falls apart when we examine what it means in specific contexts. For example, if I am preparing a meal there are lots of different ways in which I can describe the skills involved – whether this is in terms of specific technical skills, such as using knives in particular ways, or more general descriptions of the processes involved in cooking particular kinds of dishes. But my ability to describe these skills is very different to my ability to actually produce an edible meal. </p>
<p>In a similar way, in higher education, we often mistake the ability to describe particular skills for the ability to demonstrate these skills in a range of contexts.</p>
<p>Problem solving is one transferable skill that is often seen as central to graduate employability. But if a student can solve a problem in chemistry, it does not mean that they can solve a sociological problem. </p>
<p>The idea of problem solving is empty unless we know the kind of problem being solved, by who and in what circumstances. This means that the successful performance of skills is dependent on students’ understanding of the knowledge they have gained at university. </p>
<h2>Transformative experiences</h2>
<p>We need to stop seeing the purposes of university education in terms of graduate premiums or generic skills. Instead, we need to focus on how higher education helps students to gain an understanding of knowledge that changes their sense of who they are and what they can do in the world. </p>
<p>While this does help students to become more employable, employability is not the main educational purpose of a university education. The danger is that we will lose a sense of the ways in which students’ engagement with academic knowledge is central to the way they are transformed by their university experiences. Without this transformation, higher education will not produce the kinds of graduates that ministers rightly insist that society needs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146623/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Ashwin receives funding from The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). </span></em></p>Basing the worth of a degree on how much graduates earn overlooks whether there is something intrinsically valuable about higher education itself.Paul Ashwin, Professor of Higher Education, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1459882020-09-13T12:11:21Z2020-09-13T12:11:21ZTeaching children digital literacy skills helps them navigate and respond to misinformation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357730/original/file-20200911-14-ebkja4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C5176%2C3437&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Acquiring digital literacy skills is taking on increasing importance.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As we all head back to school during a global pandemic, it’s a good time to ask whether students are learning the skills they need to keep themselves and their communities safe. </p>
<p>Over the last decade, scholars, policy makers and citizens have been concerned about whether young people had the key skills they needed to survive and thrive in the digital economy. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-development/news/2019/07/minister-sohi-announces-new-cancode-investment.html">Canada</a>, the <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2019/ecosoc6980.doc.htm">United Nations</a> and the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/10/how-early-should-kids-learn-to-code/">World Economic Forum</a>, among others, have developed position papers and programs aimed at promoting digital skills. Coding, in particular, has been promoted as an essential component of public education. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Sv9z6_zbbeQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">CBC’s The National takes a look at the increasing relevancy of coding education in the digital economy.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most public schools now teach students how to code, but we are not teaching students how to identify their own key triggers for misinformation or the organizational incentives for misinformation spread. As a result of these missing information literacy skills, our children may grow into adults who are not prepared to participate democratically in what is certain to be an even more complex information environment.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-all-children-must-learn-code-127937">Why all children must learn code</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While I agree that coding is indeed an important skill, I am concerned that it is not enough. </p>
<h2>More than coding</h2>
<p>Computer coding helps students to develop skills they need for <a href="http://hdl.voced.edu.au/10707/504623">employment in the digital economy</a>. But we also need to help students develop skills that help them participate in digital democracy. And recent events have highlighted key vulnerabilities with respect to this kind of participation.</p>
<p>COVID-19 has revealed <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7249102/coronavirus-canada-misinformation-strategy/">important gaps in our digital information landscape</a>. Misinformation, disinformation, propaganda and conspiracy theories make it difficult for people to access accurate and sometimes life-saving health information. </p>
<p>Of course, the issue of online misinformation does not just impact our physical health, but the health of our key institutions as well. As the United States enters a key election, the presence of both accidental and deliberately seeded misinformation <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/03/the-2020-disinformation-war/605530/">threatens the foundation of democracy itself</a>. So how can we address this important issue?</p>
<p>My research on COVID-19 health information seeking, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2019.1625101">climate change communication</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3097286.3097326">social media platform choice</a> examines the kinds of information people share, and how they share it. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-address-coronavirus-misinformation-spreading-through-messaging-apps-and-email-134310">How to address coronavirus misinformation spreading through messaging apps and email</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Emotional responses, social connections, the popularity of a news item, past experiences and the nature of the content being presented are among the factors that impact how people engage with information and whether they share misinformation. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357731/original/file-20200911-24-1bb89on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young black boy using a tablet sits on a sofa" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357731/original/file-20200911-24-1bb89on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357731/original/file-20200911-24-1bb89on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357731/original/file-20200911-24-1bb89on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357731/original/file-20200911-24-1bb89on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357731/original/file-20200911-24-1bb89on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357731/original/file-20200911-24-1bb89on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357731/original/file-20200911-24-1bb89on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s important to teach children how to navigate online spaces and platforms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Assessment skills</h2>
<p>However, many traditional approaches to education, with teachers at the head of the class and textbooks as an authoritative source, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004372573_002">do not help students to naturally develop methods of critically assessing information</a>. </p>
<p>It is also important to teach children that platforms such as Google, YouTube, Twitter or Facebook are not neutral. Rather, they are designed to maximize engagement, which short-circuits our brain’s natural defences and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/05/09/how-misinformation-spreads-on-social-media-and-what-to-do-about-it/">leads us to share misinformation with others</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/misinformation-and-biases-infect-social-media-both-intentionally-and-accidentally-97148">Misinformation and biases infect social media, both intentionally and accidentally</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Students need to develop both <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ961220.pdf">critical thinking and reflexivity</a> — critical thinking to be able to <a href="https://hapgood.us/2019/06/19/sift-the-four-moves/">assess content and sources</a>, and reflexivity to understand the role their own unconscious biases, social connections and emotions play when processing information. </p>
<p>As children settle into a new school year, this is an important time to think about information literacy and how we can best prepare children for a digital world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145988/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jaigris Hodson receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada under the Insight, Connections and Canada Research Chairs Programs. </span></em></p>Teaching children digital literacy skills is essential to help them learn how to navigate and respond to misinformation. It also helps them grow into adults who can participate in digital democracy.Jaigris Hodson, Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Royal Roads UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1337352020-04-28T10:12:03Z2020-04-28T10:12:03ZHow to boost UK productivity after coronavirus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320595/original/file-20200315-50551-wfnla7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Now, have I got the skills to fix this?'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/male-model-red-overalls-fixes-pile-315655658">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK faces a highly uncertain economic future – with its recent withdrawal from the EU and the ongoing <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk-budget-2020-experts-react-133455">COVID-19</a> outbreak casting much into disarray. But one thing is clear: as part of its recovery, the UK economy will need to address some serious long-term issues around productivity. </p>
<p>Productivity is the output produced given the inputs employed, such as hired labour, capital and materials. It describes how efficiently a producer or service provider combines these inputs to deliver products or services. Crucially, productivity can turbo-charge economic growth – and ensure the survival and expansion of firms.</p>
<p>But while a productivity slowdown has put the brakes on many developed economies since the 2008 financial crisis, the UK has been particularly hard hit. This will almost certainly be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/feb/03/uk-productivity-slowdown-worst-since-industrial-revolution-study">UK productivity growth</a> has lagged behind that of other comparable economies since the 1970s and the country has suffered virtually zero growth in labour productivity since 2008, the latter known as the UK <a href="https://www.lbpresearch.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/UK-Productivity-Skills-Full-Article.pdf">“productivity puzzle”</a>. By 2016, the output per hour worked in the UK was <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/economicoutputandproductivity/productivitymeasures/bulletins/internationalcomparisonsofproductivityfinalestimates/2016">16.3% below</a> the average of the rest of the G7 countries – although this has improved following adjustments to how labour input is measured.</p>
<p>But why? And what can be done about it in these uncertain times? Aston Business School explored this in a <a href="https://www.lbpresearch.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/UK-Productivity-Skills-Full-Article.pdf">recent white paper</a>.</p>
<p>In the short term, tumbling global and local demand and a slow economic recovery following the financial crisis arguably have played a part, as have other factors such as falling real wages and low business dynamism. Low real wages and low productivity usually go hand in hand – there’s less incentive to be productive when you’re undervalued – while low business dynamism reduces the likelihood of innovative ideas boosting productivity. </p>
<p>As part of the UK government’s austerity programme, around half a million jobs were slashed from the UK public sector, while the private sector added 1.7 million jobs between 2012 and 2015. But <a href="https://www.niesr.ac.uk/sites/default/files/publications/The%20UK%20Productivity%20Puzzle%20NIESR%20DP%20448_0.pdf">evidence</a> suggests that many of these new private sector, self-employed roles were low-productivity, part-time and based on zero hours contracts. On average, these mean low pay, low skills utilitisation and few opportunities for skills development. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the acute decline in demand has also made firms less willing to invest in innovation and new ideas that might improve productivity. Again, COVID-19 could present even greater challenges, as firms are likely to invest less in research and development (R&D) than usual due to uncertainties and financial pressure. </p>
<p>So where does that leave us? We argue that technology, innovation and skills are central to the conundrum.</p>
<h2>Skills crisis</h2>
<p>There is some hope for the UK economy. In recent years, skills have improved at every skill level and are expected to continue to do so. High skills are already relatively abundant – <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Tk7UDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA35&lpg=PA35&dq=uk+46%25+25-64+tertiary+education&source=bl&ots=YsQ5Bk16jA&sig=ACfU3U1dVf9flbzfalNJ3J7rC27zkkZTSw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiPte6WvIjpAhVlSxUIHT71BWcQ6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=uk%2046%25%2025-64%20tertiary%20education&f=false">46% of adults aged 25-64</a> have some form of tertiary education, compared to an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average of 37%. Meanwhile, in 2015, 13% of UK university students were enrolled in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects, compared to an OECD average of 6%.</p>
<p>But the situation is gloomier when it comes to low and medium skills. In fact, while the UK is predicted to be ranked <a href="https://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/Skills_Matter_Further_Results_from_the_Survey_of_Adult_Skills.pdf">seventh</a> among OECD countries in 2020 for high (tertiary level education) skills, it is projected to be 22nd for low (below upper secondary) skills and an even lowlier 28th for intermediate (upper secondary) skills.</p>
<p>The UK also lags behind its competitors in vocational education and training – and many adults remain hampered by poor literacy and, particularly, numeracy. Ranked 13th out of 18 countries by the benchmark <a href="https://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/Skills%20volume%201%20(eng)--full%20v12--eBook%20(04%2011%202013).pdf">Surveys of Adult Skills</a>, a staggering quarter of UK adults scored at Level 1 or below (out of five) for numeracy skills (the OECD average is 19%). Worryingly for the future, the UK is the only country where older people (aged 55-64) outperformed younger people (16-24) in both literary and numeracy.</p>
<p>Productivity is driven by technology, but it demands the right level of skills, deployed when and where needed to be effective. And in the UK, growth in this new environment continues to be held back by workplace skills shortages, gaps and mismatches.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320597/original/file-20200315-50538-1kiu2gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320597/original/file-20200315-50538-1kiu2gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320597/original/file-20200315-50538-1kiu2gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320597/original/file-20200315-50538-1kiu2gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320597/original/file-20200315-50538-1kiu2gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320597/original/file-20200315-50538-1kiu2gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320597/original/file-20200315-50538-1kiu2gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s a brave new technological world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/uk-stock-graphic-background-on-financial-1064025851">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>New technologies and their adoption require varied skills. Nowadays, innovation in manufacturing means that customer service and embedding algorithms in customers’ software systems are as important as bashing metals. These changes must be adapted to if firms are to become more productive.</p>
<p>As technology advances, it’s no surprise that there are skills shortages and mismatches. But they must be addressed by policy, corporate practices and innovative thinking – especially in the current climate. Skills gaps may lead to reduced short-term R&D expenditure and long-term fixed capital investment, slowing productivity further. At a regional level, skills gaps sharpen competition for skills and talents between companies, <a href="https://www.enterpriseresearch.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/ERC-ResPap73-DuVanino-Final-1.pdf">favouring fast-growth firms</a> while impairing others.</p>
<p>There is a long way to go before a healthy balance is maintained. The UK Commission for Employment and Skills’ (UKCES) <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ukces-employer-skills-survey-2015-uk-report">2015 Employee Skills Survey (ESS)</a> found that one in seven employers identified workers who were not sufficiently proficient in their positions, amounting to an estimated 1.4 million employees.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, three in ten employers are estimated to experience “over-skilling”, whereby employees are over-qualified and under-utilised. This is a clear waste of resources and a missed opportunity for productivity growth.</p>
<p>But while skills gaps are a central part of the productivity problem, current efforts to assess their scale tend to fall short. This is because skill levels are often measured via formal educational attainment. While most people finish their education by their early twenties, they can, and should in fact, continue to acquire skills throughout life – particularly if their workplace offers training. Indeed, <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/571675/ER5_The_UK_s_Skills_Mix_Current_Trends_and_Future_Needs.pdf">existing statistics</a> suggest the UK should encourage lifelong learning and better use of skills if it wants to boost growth, productivity and earnings.</p>
<p>Future research should reflect this – by focusing on levels of training and skills rather than education among the workforce.</p>
<h2>The future</h2>
<p>But the UK is also letting itself down on R&D, which helps drive firms’ innovations and productivity. The good news is that the UK has a world-leading fundamental science base and is ranked fourth among economies producing the largest volume of top-cited <a href="https://static.rasset.ie/documents/news/2017/09/oecd.pdf">scientific publications</a>. Despite this, however, it spends less on R&D, relative to GDP, especially by its corporate sector, than many other major world economies. In 2016, the UK ranked just 11th in the EU. </p>
<p>In this new economic environment, information and communication technologies (ICTs) will play a key role, accounting for <a href="https://static.rasset.ie/documents/news/2017/09/oecd.pdf">70% of global patents</a>. The UK, however, doesn’t feature among the top countries patenting emerging ICT technologies. And while it is on a par with France and Germany when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) related patents, it is a long way behind Japan, Korea, the US, China and Taiwan. It also lags behind many other countries in robotics. These are issues the UK should consider as it seeks to thrive in this technological new world.</p>
<p>Productivity slowdown is not unique to the UK – it is a global issue that now faces a whole array of added challenges. Skills and technology are key components of the solution, but the two must be correctly balanced. Skills must meet the demands of evolving technologies, for they not only lead to new technological innovations, but also drive and facilitate their adoption and diffusion.</p>
<p>There is no easy fix. But forward-looking, bold policies, inspired and informed by solid research and a global perspective, are key to lifting the UK out of the productivity doldrums and providing a lasting recovery post-COVID-19.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133735/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In these troubled economic times, skills and technology are key to lifting the UK out of the productivity doldrums.Jun Du, Professor of Economics, Aston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1283672020-01-20T21:06:29Z2020-01-20T21:06:29ZCanada can better prepare to retrain workers displaced by disruptive technologies<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310750/original/file-20200119-118315-x7imcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A photo of the last truck to be assembled on the General Motors production line, shown at a sports bar where GM workers congregated after their work work at the General Motors plant in Oshawa, Ont., on its final day of vehicle production, on Dec. 18, 2019.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Vincent Elkaim</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Canada must prepare for the growing need to retrain workers displaced by disruptive technologies. To do so, governments must have a thorough sense of the effectiveness of current employment retraining programs. </p>
<p>High-quality evaluations of employment training programs will help policy-makers identify the best models to prepare workers for the future — and also help them avoid <a href="https://irpp.org/research-studies/whats-so-bad-about-increasing-inequality-in-canada/">deepening inequality</a>. </p>
<p>But right now in Canada, there is no central body that evaluates a vast array of employment training programs across the country. Instead, as a study we conducted revealed, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/cpp.2019-024">responsibility for many programs is divided across government levels</a>, and these programs are under-researched. A lack of co-ordination and data sharing to bolster policy research and development will become a major problem unless the federal government takes a stronger leadership role.</p>
<p>The federal government says it has the vision and political appetite to improve Canada’s training infrastructure. Such an effort needs to be backed by investment in evaluating training programs organized and delivered by all levels of government in Canada. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310746/original/file-20200119-118347-cqng9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310746/original/file-20200119-118347-cqng9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310746/original/file-20200119-118347-cqng9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310746/original/file-20200119-118347-cqng9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310746/original/file-20200119-118347-cqng9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310746/original/file-20200119-118347-cqng9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310746/original/file-20200119-118347-cqng9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A smart cart, part of a pilot project, is shown at a Sobeys grocery store in Oakville, Ont., in November 2019. With a smart cart, shoppers can skip the cashier or self-checkout as their carts scan any items put into them, track their total bill and accept payment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Dramatic shift</h2>
<p>The global labour force is experiencing a dramatic shift as a result of rapidly changing technologies. A <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/jobs-lost-jobs-gained-what-the-future-of-work-will-mean-for-jobs-skills-and-wages">McKinsey Global Institute</a> study from 2017 estimates that as many as 375 million workers globally (14 per cent of the global workforce) will likely need to switch occupations and learn new skills. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://brookfieldinstitute.ca/report/better-faster-stronger/">recent analysis</a> of the potential effects of automation on Ontario’s manufacturing and financial sectors suggest many of the province’s occupations will be reshaped as these sectors adopt new, more efficient technologies. In financial services, demands for skills have already changed since 2013. </p>
<p>Technological innovations have provided incredible economic opportunities for some types of workers. The World Economic Forum’s <a href="https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-future-of-jobs-report-2018">Future of Jobs report</a> predicts strong growth not only in tech-heavy areas like robotics, but also in non-tech support positions like customer service and sales. </p>
<p>That said, individuals who have difficulty adapting to rapidly shifting work environments, or who don’t have the time and capital to invest in new skills, will likely find themselves left behind. </p>
<h2>Policy interventions needed</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ecge.12056">Existing research</a> indicates that, without concerted policy interventions, the Canadian labour market may become increasingly polarized, split between high-income cognitive-intensive jobs and low-income manual occupations.</p>
<p>Canada’s current retraining programs for people who lose their jobs or struggle to find work tend to be targeted, focusing on a particular age group, educational or social background or employment history. </p>
<p>To find the right fit, individuals must navigate a range of federal, provincial or municipal organizations. Although this “many cooks” structure may allow for more responsiveness to local needs, the many options make it difficult for users to understand what assistance they’re entitled to and who is responsible for it. </p>
<h2>Future Skills initiative</h2>
<p>The current Liberal government seems poised to update Canada’s worker-support infrastructure. Among its numerous planned investments in job training, <a href="https://www.budget.gc.ca/2019/docs/plan/budget-2019-en.pdf">the 2019 federal budget</a> earmarked $225 million for <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/future-skills.html">Future Skills</a>, an initiative that aims to prepare Canadians for the future of work by “exploring major trends shaping the future and testing innovative approaches.” </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1204808190560477184"}"></div></p>
<p>For a country that has historically <a href="https://data.oecd.org/socialexp/public-spending-on-labour-markets.htm">spent well below the OECD average</a> on job training programs, this proposed initiative signals a much-needed shift in the status quo.</p>
<p>The 2019 budget also suggested that the government will take a more active role in overseeing and evaluating current job training programs. It described the results of a 2018 <a href="https://www.budget.gc.ca/2019/docs/plan/chap-01-en.html">Horizontal Skills Review</a> that examined more 100 job training programs organized within four age-based categories. The budget stated that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“ …the Government believes targeted changes could be made to help Canadians more easily navigate the programs and supports they need, improve the way that programs reflect emerging skills needs in the labour market and improve how programs show results so that decision-makers can better identify and invest in ‘what works.’”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The government also affirmed it will target emerging skills, simplify access to training programs and, importantly, publish data on the programs’ effectiveness. </p>
<h2>Yet to share findings</h2>
<p>Now is the time for the federal government to share the empirical findings of its skills review. </p>
<p>This is necessary so that industry groups, researchers, other levels of government and the public alike can make use of this data and analysis to inform decisions about training and ensure the federal government follows through on its commitments. </p>
<p>We need robust public data on program effectiveness to help the organizations –governmental, non-profit and for-profit – that deliver training ensure that it’s effective and relevant in the context of rapid technological change. </p>
<h2>Reorient training supports</h2>
<p>Existing research, including the <a href="https://ppforum.ca/publications/skills-training-and-lifelong-learning/">Public Policy Forum’s</a> <a href="https://ppforum.ca/publications/automation-ai-anxiety-policy-preferred-populism-possible/">Brave New Work</a> series, highlights key priorities. Canada needs training systems to emphasize foundational skills and address inequities in the labour market. These should be based on shared information about best practices and knowledge relevant to changing labour markets. </p>
<p>Canada is in a strong position to prepare for the future of work compared to many places. It has a well-developed bureaucracy and a federal government interested in improving existing programs in order to help more Canadians who face labour market disruption to secure decent work. </p>
<p>To fulfil this potential, researchers and all agencies or offices with a hand in evaluating and developing quality programs need public data about what programs exist and how effective they are. The beginning of 2020 is an excellent time for our provincial governments, as well, to advocate for this priority as they revisit their employment training contracts. </p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128367/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alix J. Jansen has received funding from the Ontario Human Capital Research and Innovation Fund (OHCRIF) of the Ontario Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development and from the University of Toronto’s Department of Political Science. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Dhuey receives funding from the Ontario Human Capital Research and Innovation Fund (OHCRIF). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linda A. White has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC); the Ontario Human Capital Research and Innovation Fund (OHCRIF); the McCain Foundation; and the Institute of Public Administration of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michal Perlman receives funding from the Ontario Human Capital Research and Innovation Fund (OHCRIF).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beth Martin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The federal government must take a stronger leadership role to ensure the many bodies that co-ordinate employment training programs are sharing information to develop best practices.Alix J. Jansen, PhD Candidate, University of TorontoBeth Martin, Project Manager, University of TorontoElizabeth Dhuey, Associate Professor of Economics, Department of Management, University of TorontoLinda A. White, RBC Chair and Professor, Department of Political Science and Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of TorontoMichal Perlman, Professor of Applied Psychology and Human Development, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1287772019-12-17T02:01:53Z2019-12-17T02:01:53ZRobot career advisor: AI may soon be able to analyse your tweets to match you to a job<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306943/original/file-20191215-85417-7jqaf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C8%2C2779%2C1236&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tennis professionals like Maria Sharapova (pictured) share similar personality traits to her peers and rivals in tennis, but these traits are entirely different to those in other professions such as technology or science.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/johanlb/5790331774/">johanlb/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine yourself graduating from high school, with the world before you. </p>
<p>But now you must decide what career you want to pursue. You hope for a job that will pay the bills, but also one you will enjoy. After all, you will spend a large portion of your waking hours at work. </p>
<p>But how can you make a reliable choice – beyond what your parents might be pushing for, or what your final year results will get you direct entry into.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/12/10/1917942116">study published today</a> in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science found different professions attract people with very different psychological characteristics.</p>
<p>When looking for a new career, you might visit a career adviser and answer a set of questions to identify your interests and strengths. These results are used to match you with a set of potential occupations. </p>
<p>However, this method relies on long surveys, and doesn’t account for the fact that many occupations are changing or disappearing as technology transforms the employment landscape. </p>
<h2>21st century job search</h2>
<p>We wondered if we could develop a data-driven approach to matching a person with a suitable profession, based on psychological traces they reveal online. </p>
<p>Studies have shown people leave traces of themselves through <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1073191113514104?journalCode=asma">the language they post online</a> and <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/110/15/5802">their online behaviours</a>. </p>
<p>Could we analyse this to find out the extent to which people doing the same job shared the same personality traits?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/employment-services-arent-working-for-older-jobseekers-jobactive-staff-or-employers-98852">Employment services aren't working for older jobseekers, jobactive staff or employers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In our research, we identified more than 100,000 Twitter users, each of whom included one of 3,513 job titles in their user profile. </p>
<p>Then, using a tool available through IBM’s cloud-based artificial intelligence engine Watson, and its <a href="https://personality-insights-demo.ng.bluemix.net/">Personality Insights</a> service, we gave each profile a score across ten personality-related characteristics, based on the language in their posts. </p>
<p>We used a variety of data analytics and machine learning techniques to explore the personality of each of the occupations. </p>
<p>For example, to create the “vocation compass map” we used an unsupervised machine learning algorithm to cluster occupational personality data into twenty distinct clusters, grouping the occupations that were most similar in terms of personality.</p>
<h2>An occupational map</h2>
<p>Work has long been thought to be more fulfilling if it fits who we are as a person, in terms of our personality, values, and interests. </p>
<p>Our results confirmed this, and we found that different occupations tended to have very different personality profiles. </p>
<p>For instance, software programmers and scientists were generally more open to experiencing a variety of new activities, were intellectually curious, tended to think in symbols and abstractions, and found repetition boring. On the other hand, elite tennis players tended to be more conscientious, organised and agreeable. </p>
<p>Our findings point to the possibility of using data shared on social media to match an individual to a suitable job.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306939/original/file-20191215-85376-1bpayac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306939/original/file-20191215-85376-1bpayac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306939/original/file-20191215-85376-1bpayac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=291&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306939/original/file-20191215-85376-1bpayac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=291&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306939/original/file-20191215-85376-1bpayac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=291&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306939/original/file-20191215-85376-1bpayac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306939/original/file-20191215-85376-1bpayac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306939/original/file-20191215-85376-1bpayac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People belonging to different occupations generally have distinct personality traits. This figure shows the digital fingerprints of 1,200 individuals across nine occupations. Each dot corresponds to a user - with people grouped.
within their self-identified occupation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul X. McCarthy</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We used machine learning to cluster more than one thousand roles based on the inferred personality traits of people in those roles.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/inspire-children-with-good-careers-advice-and-they-do-better-at-school-33104">Inspire children with good careers advice and they do better at school</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We found many similar jobs could be grouped together.</p>
<p>For example, one cluster included different technology jobs such as software programming, web development, and computer science. Another group included gym management, logistic coordination, and concert promotions.</p>
<p>You can <a href="http://bit.ly/vocation-map-interactive">explore more with this interactive online map</a> we made. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306941/original/file-20191215-85428-nn12m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306941/original/file-20191215-85428-nn12m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306941/original/file-20191215-85428-nn12m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306941/original/file-20191215-85428-nn12m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306941/original/file-20191215-85428-nn12m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306941/original/file-20191215-85428-nn12m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306941/original/file-20191215-85428-nn12m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306941/original/file-20191215-85428-nn12m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Vocations Map we created has clusters based on the predicted personalities of 101,152 Twitter users, across 1,227 occupations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marian-Andrei Rizoiu</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, while many of the combinations aligned with existing occupation classifiers (current formal groupings that governments and other organisations use to group jobs together), some clusters included roles not traditionally grouped together. </p>
<p>For instance, cartographers, grain farmers and geologists ended up grouped together and shared similar personality traits to many of the technology professionals. </p>
<h2>A data-driven vocation compass</h2>
<p>With our results, we explored the idea of building a data-driven vocation compass: a recommendation system that could find the best career fit for someone’s personality. </p>
<p>We built a system that could recommend an occupation aligned to people’s personality traits with over 70% accuracy. </p>
<p>Even when our system was wrong, it wasn’t far off, and pointed to professions with very similar skill sets. For instance, it might suggest a poet becomes a fictional writer. </p>
<p>Professions are quickly changing due to automation and technological breakthroughs. And in our connected, digital world, we leave behind traces of ourselves. Our work has offered one approach to using these traces in a productive way. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/artificial-intelligence-may-take-your-job-so-political-leaders-need-to-start-doing-theirs-103764">Artificial intelligence may take your job, so political leaders need to start doing theirs</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This approach may one day be used to help people find their dream career, or at the very least, better our understanding of the hidden personality dimensions of different roles.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128777/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marian-Andrei Rizoiu receives funding from Facebook, the Australian National University and the University of Technology Sydney. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul X. McCarthy and Peggy Kern do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After analysing posts from 100,000 Twitter users, our research used big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence to reveal the hidden personality traits underpinning thousands of jobs.Peggy Kern, Associate professor, The University of MelbourneMarian-Andrei Rizoiu, Lecturer in Computer Science, University of Technology SydneyPaul X. McCarthy, Adjunct Professor, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1106632019-04-30T10:44:18Z2019-04-30T10:44:18ZCollaborative problem solvers are made not born – here’s what you need to know<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271563/original/file-20190429-194609-mdphbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Group project experience doesn't automatically translate to competence at collaboration.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/g1Kr4Ozfoac">Brooke Cagle/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Challenges are a fact of life. Whether it’s a high-tech company figuring out how to shrink its carbon footprint, or a local community trying to identify new revenue sources, people are continually dealing with problems that require input from others. In the modern world, we face problems that are broad in scope and great in scale of impact – think of trying to understand and identify potential solutions related to climate change, cybersecurity or authoritarian leaders.</p>
<p>But people usually aren’t born competent in collaborative problem-solving. In fact, a famous turn of phrase about teams is that a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=jO17AgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA359&dq=%22How+can+you+turn+a+team+of+experts+into+an+expert+team%22+Zsambok&ots=AXprcvw255&sig=OPr4vSa-NGPd70Q9Rw2us3MfEjE#v=onepage&q=%22How%20can%20you%20turn%20a%20team%20of%20experts%20into%20an%20expert%20team%22%20Zsambok&f=false">team of experts does not make an expert team</a>. Just as troubling, the evidence suggests that, for the most part, people aren’t being taught this skill either. A 2012 survey by the American Management Association found that higher level managers believed recent college graduates <a href="http://playbook.amanet.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/2012-Critical-Skills-Survey-pdf.pdf">lack collaboration abilities</a>.</p>
<p>Maybe even worse, college grads seem to overestimate their own competence. One 2015 survey found nearly two-thirds of recent graduates believed they can effectively work in a team, but <a href="https://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/LEAP/2015employerstudentsurvey.pdf">only one-third of managers agreed</a>. The tragic irony is that the less competent you are, the <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/1999-15054-002">less accurate is your self-assessment</a> of your own competence. It seems that this infamous <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-385522-0.00005-6">Dunning-Kruger effect</a> can also occur for teamwork. </p>
<p>Perhaps it’s no surprise that in a 2015 international assessment of hundreds of thousands of students, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264285521-en">less than 10% performed at the highest level of collaboration</a>. For example, the vast majority of students could not overcome teamwork obstacles or resolve conflict. They were not able to monitor group dynamics or to engage in the kind of actions needed to make sure the team interacted according to their roles. Given that all these students have had group learning opportunities in and out of school over many years, this points to a global deficit in the acquisition of collaboration skills. </p>
<p>How can this deficiency be addressed? What makes one team effective while another fails? How can educators improve training and testing of collaborative problem-solving? Drawing from disciplines that study cognition, collaboration and learning, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100618808244">my colleagues</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=t3O2u3MAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">and I</a> have been studying teamwork processes. Based on this research, we have three key recommendations.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271566/original/file-20190429-194633-1qkwi4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271566/original/file-20190429-194633-1qkwi4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271566/original/file-20190429-194633-1qkwi4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271566/original/file-20190429-194633-1qkwi4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271566/original/file-20190429-194633-1qkwi4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271566/original/file-20190429-194633-1qkwi4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271566/original/file-20190429-194633-1qkwi4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271566/original/file-20190429-194633-1qkwi4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Specific skills lay the groundwork for successful collaboration.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/3V8xo5Gbusk">Kaleidico/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How it should work</h2>
<p>At the most general level, collaborative problem-solving requires team members to establish and maintain a shared understanding of the situation they’re facing and any relevant problem elements they’ve identified. At the start, there’s typically an uneven distribution of knowledge on a team. Members must maintain communication to help each other know who knows what, as well as help each other interpret elements of the problem and which expertise should be applied.</p>
<p>Then the team can get to work, laying out subtasks based upon member roles, or creating mechanisms to coordinate member actions. They’ll critique possible solutions to identify the most appropriate path forward. </p>
<p>Finally, at a higher level, collaborative problem-solving requires keeping the team organized – for example, by monitoring interactions and providing feedback to each other. Team members need, at least, basic interpersonal competencies that help them manage relationships within the team (like encouraging participation) and communication (like listening to learn). Even better is the more sophisticated ability to take others’ perspectives, in order to consider alternative views of problem elements.</p>
<p>Whether it is a team of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617697078">professionals in an organization</a> or a team of <a href="https://doi.org/10.17226/19007">scientists solving complex scientific problems</a>, communicating clearly, managing conflict, understanding roles on a team, and knowing who knows what – all are collaboration skills related to effective teamwork. </p>
<h2>What’s going wrong in the classroom?</h2>
<p>When so many students are continually engaged in group projects, or collaborative learning, why are they not learning about teamwork? There are interrelated factors that may be creating graduates who collaborate poorly but who think they are quite good at teamwork.</p>
<p>I suggest students vastly overestimate their collaboration skills due to the dangerous combination of a lack of systematic instruction coupled with inadequate feedback. On the one hand, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0363-y">students engage in a great deal of group work</a> in high school and college. On the other hand, students rarely receive meaningful <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100618808244">instruction, modeling and feedback on collaboration</a>. Decades of research on learning show that explicit instruction and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2011.11.003">feedback are crucial for mastery</a>.</p>
<p>Although classes that implement collaborative problem-solving do provide some instruction and feedback, it’s not necessarily about their teamwork. Students are learning about concepts in classes; they are acquiring knowledge about a domain. What is missing is something that forces them to explicitly reflect on their ability to work with others.</p>
<p>When students process feedback on how well they learned something, or whether they solved a problem, they mistakenly think this is also indicative of effective teamwork. I hypothesize that students come to conflate learning course content material in any group context with collaboration competency.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271641/original/file-20190430-194630-1hjqr20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271641/original/file-20190430-194630-1hjqr20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271641/original/file-20190430-194630-1hjqr20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271641/original/file-20190430-194630-1hjqr20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271641/original/file-20190430-194630-1hjqr20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271641/original/file-20190430-194630-1hjqr20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271641/original/file-20190430-194630-1hjqr20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271641/original/file-20190430-194630-1hjqr20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Educators can do better at helping students learn collaborative problem-solving skills.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/diverse-education-shoot-761566714">Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A prescription for better collaborators</h2>
<p>Now that we’ve defined the problem, what can be done? A century of <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/apl0000142">research on team training</a>, combined with decades of research on <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543069001021">group learning in the classroom</a>, points the way forward. My colleagues and I have distilled some core elements from this literature to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100618808244">suggest improvements for collaborative learning</a>. </p>
<p>First, most pressing is to get training on teamwork into the world’s classrooms. At a minimum, this needs to happen during college undergraduate education, but even better would be starting in high school or earlier. Research has demonstrated it’s possible to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496408317794">teach collaboration competencies</a> such as dealing with conflict and communicating to learn. Researchers and educators need, themselves, to collaborate to adapt these methods for the classroom.</p>
<p>Secondly, students need opportunities for practice. Although most already have experience working in groups, this needs to move beyond science and engineering classes. Students need to learn to work across disciplines so after graduation they can work across professions on solving complex societal problems.</p>
<p>Third, any systematic instruction and practice setting needs to include feedback. This is not simply feedback on whether they solved the problem or did well on learning course content. Rather, it needs to be feedback on interpersonal competencies that drive successful collaboration. Instructors should assess students on teamwork processes like relationship management, where they encourage participation from each other, as well as skills in communication where they actively listen to their teammates.</p>
<p>Even better would be feedback telling students how well they were able to take on the perspective of a teammate from another discipline. For example, was the engineering student able to take the view of a student in law and understand the legal ramifications of a new technology’s implementation? </p>
<p>My colleagues and I believe that explicit instruction on how to collaborate, opportunities for practice, and feedback about collaboration processes will better prepare today’s students to work together to solve tomorrow’s problems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110663/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen M. Fiore has received funding from federal agencies such as NASA, ONR, DARPA, and the NSF to study collaborative problem solving and teamwork. He is past president of the Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research, currently a board member of the International Network for the Science of Team Science, and a member of DARPA's Information Science and Technology working group. </span></em></p>From the biggest ‘wicked’ problems on down, finding solutions to challenges depends on working together collaboratively. Students think they’re good at this, but they aren’t. Here’s what could help.Stephen M. Fiore, Professor of Cognitive Sciences, University of Central FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1042642018-10-03T11:49:13Z2018-10-03T11:49:13ZFair work must be about more than who keeps the tips<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239126/original/file-20181003-52691-1x1g5l9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Focusing on pennies and pounds isn't enough to help workers succeed.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/vintage-retro-glass-jar-hemp-rope-721260262?src=jI0elhVzfN6v73dITPBxrQ-1-0">nutcd32/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45701799">new law announced</a> by UK prime minister Theresa May will see restaurants in Britain being banned from unfairly taking tips from staff. Ensuring staff keep their tips is certainly a positive move to promote fairness. However, as tips are often used by employees to supplement their low pay, shouldn’t improving quality of work be of higher importance? </p>
<p>Since at least 2008, successive UK governments have focused primarily <a href="https://www.ippr.org/files/images/media/files/publication/2013/07/a_job_for_everyone_July2013_11002.pdf">on improving employment levels</a>. As a result, less focus has been placed on improving job quality. Across the UK, <a href="https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/app/uploads/2018/05/Low-Pay-Britain-2018.pdf">an estimated 4.9m people</a> are now employed in low-paid work, earning less than two thirds of the median hourly wage. In Wales alone, <a href="https://gov.wales/statistics-and-research/business-register-employment-survey/?lang=en">around 459,000 workers</a> are employed in low-paying occupations – as defined by <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/661195/Low_Pay_Commission_2017_report.pdf">the Low Pay Commission</a>. </p>
<p>Many of these low-paid workers also find themselves without a credible route to progress into better paid and quality work. <a href="http://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/default/files/jrf/migrated/files/employment-progression-skills-full.pdf">A substantive report</a> commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 2014 showed that in low-paid sectors such as retail, catering, and care, movement into better paid and more secure work simply isn’t offered to many. This is reflected in the fact that from 2006 to 2016, 25% of low-paid workers were still undertaking low-paid work <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/652973/The_Great_Escape_-_Report.pdf">a decade later</a>. And in the food service industry, though there are opportunities for service staff to move up into managerial positions, research has found that promotion decisions are <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-2338.2011.00656.x">often made arbitrarily</a>, without fair assessment of qualifications and skills.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239127/original/file-20181003-52691-88yo7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239127/original/file-20181003-52691-88yo7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239127/original/file-20181003-52691-88yo7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239127/original/file-20181003-52691-88yo7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239127/original/file-20181003-52691-88yo7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239127/original/file-20181003-52691-88yo7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239127/original/file-20181003-52691-88yo7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Another pathway to improving workers’ prospects.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/business-occupation-finger-people-moving-step-183125153?src=NHD9NF1DbU3lQxWpKjb8rQ-1-20">Erik Kalibayev/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The rise of the gig economy and the decline of unionised workplaces has worsened this problem, and undermined many of the traditional career structures, such as <a href="https://www.niesr.ac.uk/blog/investment-adult-skills-decreasing-uk-%E2%80%93-here%E2%80%99s-why-we-should-be-worried">work-based learning</a>, that used to exist in low-paid sectors. The feeling of being trapped and deprived of credible opportunities – whether moving up with an existing employer or into better paid work elsewhere – is all too common. But things can’t change overnight, and the government needs to start pushing companies to help their staff.</p>
<h2>Skill building</h2>
<p>The most effective career progression plans give workers the training and skills they need to move up, while simultaneously developing the skilled workforce that employers need to boost growth. It is not simply about improving their ability in their current role, but about boosting their skills overall. </p>
<p>Take, for example, an <a href="http://www.whatworksgrowth.org/blog/an-exemplary-training-programme-will-it-work-here/">IT training scheme</a> in the Bronx, New York, which has boosted participants’ earnings by 27%. This programme focused on providing sector-specific occupational skills training, appropriate job placements and post-employment retention and advancement services to effectively provide participants with the new skills they needed to move up into better paid work.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.bitc.org.uk/resources-training/resources/impact-stories/good-work-all-how-pets-home-tackling-gender-pay-gap-and">a UK programme</a>, run in partnership with retailer Pets at Home, has ensured part-time staff can also progress in their careers, by simply offering training and managerial work experience on a part-time and flexible basis. This approach not only enabled progression, it also helped promote more <a href="https://timewise.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Moving_Up_In_Retail_Pilot.pdf">women in the workplace</a>. (Despite representing 65% of Pets at Home’s shop floor staff, many women struggled to balance progression with part-time working.) </p>
<p>Programmes like these rely on adult learning. But this is a sector which has <a href="https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/from-inadequate-to-outstanding_2017-making-the-UK-skills-system-world-class_tcm18-19933.pdf">long been neglected in the UK</a>, and lacked investment from both employers and government. In fact, the current policy approaches have stopped workers from being able to <a href="https://gov.wales/about/cabinet/cabinetstatements/2018/fairworkcommission/?lang=en">increase their skills</a> to help themselves progress.</p>
<p>For our soon to be published report, we have been looking specifically at the issue of promoting <a href="https://www.wcpp.org.uk/project/approaches-to-enabling-job-progression-in-key-foundational-sectors/">career progression in low-paid sectors</a>. We have found that providing career progression opportunities not only gets workers into better paid work and improves well-being, it also boosts economic productivity and growth. A clear benefit for workers, business and government. </p>
<p>Evidently, more must be done to create a persuasive, evidenced argument to get employers on board, and show them the mutual benefits that career progression initiatives can yield. Government policy to incentivise employers is crucial for this, and could complement other policies, such as the promotion and enforcement of a national living wage. New procurement clauses, for example, could force companies who wish to work with the public sector to commit to providing progression.</p>
<p>Improving the quality of work is a complex matter but it can be done. Ensuring a fair distribution of tips to service staff and promoting a fairer distribution of wages for workers more generally is no doubt part of the solution. But we need to look at workers’ careers, too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104264/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Webb is a Research Officer at the Wales Centre for Public Policy, which is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Welsh Government and Cardiff University. </span></em></p>Tips help, but government policy should focus on progression and skills first.Jonathan Webb, Research Officer, Wales Centre for Public Policy, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1032172018-09-20T21:19:35Z2018-09-20T21:19:35ZTech’s next great opportunity is mid-career workers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236473/original/file-20180914-177947-gyre0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mid-career workers have solid business skills valuable to the tech industry.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Unsplash)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the movie <em>The Intern</em>, a 70-year-old Robert De Niro decides to make a career change and lands an internship at an online fashion startup overflowing with young millennials and free food. The running joke in this film is that DeNiro is too “old” to create space for himself in a startup, a world for the “young.” </p>
<p>While De Niro’s character is fictional, the lessons in this film about talent and ageism in the tech sector are quite real.</p>
<p>In displaying the golden goose of characteristics that many of Canada’s tech giants are after — a desire to constantly learn and grow — the analogy of the “aged intern” highlights tech’s next greatest talent pool: the middle-aged or “mid-career” worker.</p>
<p>We’ve spent several decades studying and operating in the skills training and workforce development space. While job transitions have always been an area of challenge for mid-career workers, our research with the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship has highlighted the looming impacts of automation in exacerbating that challenge, as well as the inherent opportunity for these workers to be absorbed into the digital economy, an area of high growth desperate for talent. </p>
<h2>Shattering the myth</h2>
<p>For many years, the idea has persisted among tech companies that in order to be innovative, they must be built by and for young people. Mark Zuckerberg infamously declared that <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/say-what-young-people-are-just-smarter/">tech companies should think twice before hiring anyone over 30</a>. Now in his mid-30s, he has presumably moved that bar. </p>
<p>However, many tech companies are still made up <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/median-tech-employee-age-chart-2017-8">predominantly of younger workers</a>. Young founders often hire young peers, recent graduates are often paid less, and there are a deeply entrenched ageism and assumptions in the tech world that “older” workers (those over 30) <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-column-miller-aging/silicon-valleys-ageist-culture-is-bad-for-workers-and-business-idUSKBN0EG1ZM20140605">won’t fit into a company’s culture or contribute the same value</a>.</p>
<p>To put it bluntly, this view is short-sighted.</p>
<p>As Canada’s digital economy grows and scrappy startups become larger multinational corporations, <a href="https://brookfieldinstitute.ca/report/understanding-the-talent-gap/">they will require many of the same solid business skills that any other company does</a>. Positions in sales, marketing, project and people management all require <a href="https://brookfieldinstitute.ca/report/breaking-into-tech/">transferable skills that are often in the greatest demand</a> for larger firms, tech or otherwise. Beyond that, understanding solid business processes that foster scaling are critical and come from years of experience. </p>
<p>This is where we need a new pool of talent for fast-growing Canadian tech companies that is highly experienced, skilled and understands the systems that make a business succeed. </p>
<h2>Who are mid-career workers?</h2>
<p>Mid-career workers are individuals who have been in the workforce for 10 or more years and who are sitting at the halfway mark in building their careers. This <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/180810/t001a-eng.htm">describes the vast majority of the workforce in Canada</a>. They generally have strong business acumen in fostering firm growth and bring a level of maturity and professionalism that comes through hard-earned experience.</p>
<p>As tech companies rapidly grow, they need to hire people who have real-world experience, have worked on and led teams, can build relationships and know how to move products and processes forward. <a href="https://brookfieldinstitute.ca/report/understanding-the-talent-gap/">Many such companies regularly say</a> they struggle to find tech workers with these skills. </p>
<p>The true obstacle here, however, may be that tech companies are largely unwilling to accept the suggestion that their best possible hires may neither be young nor from within the tech sector at all.</p>
<p>Many workers will likely soon be looking for their next career move due to <a href="https://brookfieldinstitute.ca/report/automation-across-the-nation/">rapid advances in automation</a>. Unlike a recession or the shocks to the economy that we are familiar with, automation has the potential to have drastic and permanent impacts on entire sectors. </p>
<p>For mid-career workers in vulnerable sectors, losing a job at one company may well eliminate the option of finding work at another similar firm because automation would have affected jobs there as well. </p>
<p>The likely result will be a growing demographic of top talent looking to break into new industries, including tech. Seizing this opportunity, however, will require Canadian tech firms to adopt some new thinking and a new approach when it comes to retraining and reskilling.</p>
<h2>Converting potential into talent</h2>
<p>The challenge is to convert the foundation of knowledge and experience of highly skilled mid-career workers into new streams of talent for fast-growing sectors, such as tech, without overlooking the specificities of what it takes to succeed in these sectors. </p>
<p>For example, a senior retail sales manager understands the sales process: how to listen to potential clients, build a sales channel, nurture prospects and close a deal. In the tech space, the product or service will be different and the tools almost certainly state-of-the-art. Although the core skills gained from years of experience will be key to making the transition into a tech firm, doing so will likely require more training.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-canadas-skills-shortage-real-or-are-businesses-to-blame-83613">Is Canada's skills shortage real, or are businesses to blame?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Now consider the life of a mid-career worker who, with a mortgage and growing family obligations, needs to make this shift as quickly and seamlessly as possible. Less interested in “credentials,” these people will need the digital literacy and technical skills that allow their new employers take them seriously.</p>
<p>Training that is mid-career focused and cross-sectoral does not currently exist at scale. We envision a training approach that is entirely industry-led, designed to operate on the fastest timeline possible and leverages job placements and work-integrated learning opportunities so that these workers are not just skilled, but provided with on-ramps to new careers.</p>
<p>What is needed to accomplish this is a mechanism that rapidly confers new skills to mid-career workers, shifting their talents and potential from high-risk sectors to high-demand sectors. </p>
<p>Our new Canadian initiative, Palette Inc., is attempting to do exactly this. Palette is pioneering a new approach to mid-career retraining by connecting industry, workers and educators to develop new pathways for workers to move from declining industries to growing ones. As automation’s impacts become more present, this mechanism will match employers up with workers that possess the right skills. </p>
<p>For companies willing to look past the obvious yet minor gaps in skills to see potential and talent, great rewards await.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103217/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arvind Gupta is Professor of Computer Science at University of Toronto and a co-founder of Palette Inc. He is a senior fellow of the Brookfield Insitute.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>AJ Tibando is the Executive Director of Palette Inc., a nonprofit based at the Brookfield Institute.</span></em></p>Tech companies that have been wary to hire anyone over 30 are missing out on skilled workers.Arvind Gupta, Professor of computer science at the University of Toronto and the former CEO & founder of MITACS, University of TorontoAJ Tibando, Project Lead + Founder of Palette Skills Inc., Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1002712018-08-01T12:48:16Z2018-08-01T12:48:16ZBritain’s got talent – developing it could be key to solving the productivity puzzle post-Brexit<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230227/original/file-20180801-136670-1dn9s3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Productivity growth in the UK has conspicuously lagged behind that of other G7 nations since the global financial crisis. The <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/labourproductivity/bulletins/labourproductivity/januarytomarch2018">latest quarterly figures</a> perpetuate what has come to be known as Britain’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-return-the-uk-to-growth-and-solve-the-productivity-puzzle-23865">“productivity puzzle”</a>.</p>
<p>This flatlining of productivity has been unprecedented in the post-war era. Productivity (which measures output per hour and/or output per worker) would have been 16% higher by 2015 if the pre-recession level of productivity had been maintained. That this productivity slump has endured well beyond the financial crisis has become a <a href="http://obr.uk/box/the-productivity-puzzle/">major policy concern</a> given that the pace of productivity growth determines a nation’s material well-being. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, efforts to jolt the patient back to life have taken on an especially urgent air in the face of Brexit. The fear of a <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/bulletins/migrationstatisticsquarterlyreport/july2018revisedfrommaycoveringtheperiodtodecember2017">“talent exodus”</a> in the wake of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU, coupled with a possible <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/mar/27/cutting-eu-migration-very-likely-to-hit-growth-official-advisers">restriction on migrant flows</a> and the impact this might have on business, has set alarm bells ringing.</p>
<p>So, too, have the reality of accelerated technological change and the consequent potential mismatch between the skills that employees possess today and the skills that they are likely to need in the future. Small wonder that every major political party has called for better training <a href="https://www.information-age.com/upskilling-british-workforce-top-uks-political-agenda-123466508/">and an improvement in the skills</a> of the UK’s existing workforce. It is <a href="https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/unlocking-workplace-skills-role-employers_2015-november_tcm18-10227.pdf">well established</a> that an improvement in skills helps boost productivity.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230250/original/file-20180801-136670-1wgtwyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230250/original/file-20180801-136670-1wgtwyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230250/original/file-20180801-136670-1wgtwyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230250/original/file-20180801-136670-1wgtwyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230250/original/file-20180801-136670-1wgtwyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230250/original/file-20180801-136670-1wgtwyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230250/original/file-20180801-136670-1wgtwyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230250/original/file-20180801-136670-1wgtwyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Britain’s flatlining productivity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://ftp.iza.org/dp11479.pdf">Getinet Haile | Data: ONS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But how is this upskilling best achieved? Government-backed efforts currently revolve around the <a href="https://www.investorsinpeople.com/">Investors in People</a> standard, which is a benchmark for good training and staff development in organisations. Companies that sign up to the initiative and meet its guidelines are rewarded with an accreditation.</p>
<p>With Brexit on the horizon and the productivity puzzle persisting, we seem to be rapidly nearing the point at which the effectiveness of this voluntary scheme is called into question or requires further investment.</p>
<h2>Embracing the upskilling effort</h2>
<p>The Investors in People initiative has assisted thousands of businesses since its launch in 1991 – <a href="https://www.investorsinpeople.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/General_iip_recruitment_pack.pdf">more than 10,000 over the last 27 years</a>. And my <a href="http://ftp.iza.org/dp11479.pdf">recent research</a> looking at its effectiveness shows that it brings businesses genuine benefits in terms of workforce upskilling – and so also benefits the wider economy. </p>
<p>I examined data from the Workplace Employment Relations Survey, a national survey of all UK businesses with five or more employees, which gives a comprehensive picture of organisations’ attitudes to workforce training. The data include responses to questions related to different aspects of on-the-job training, such as computing, teamwork, leadership, problem solving and customer service. Analysing these and focusing on almost 900 panel organisations in the 2004 and 2011 surveys, there was a clear and positive link between the Investors in People accreditation and upskilling in the private sector.</p>
<p>This is solid evidence that the initiative is effective. In particular, it was linked with helping organisations train staff in soft skills such as teamwork and communication and more practical ways of boosting productivity such as computer training and operating new equipment.</p>
<p>On-the-job training, at least in the short term, is therefore one of the most plausible policy tools available for overcoming the UK’s poor productivity growth, preparing for a challenging Brexit and the <a href="https://www.britishchambers.org.uk/news/2018/01/bcc-quarterly-economic-survey-skills-shortage-biggest-risk-for-business">growing skills shortage</a> that this could exacerbate.</p>
<h2>Upscaling upskilling</h2>
<p>Despite the clear success of the Investors in People initiative and the number of businesses it has helped, logic alone dictates that many thousands more have had nothing to do with it. The number of UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) alone is thought to be more than <a href="http://smallbusiness.co.uk/smes-driving-employment-levels-2539643/">five million</a>.</p>
<p>The idea of making the Investors in People and similar initiatives compulsory sounds impractical – accommodating five million accreditation-seeking businesses seems fanciful. But with pressure to improve the skills of the UK’s existing workforce never so intense, there’s a need to ensure upskilling takes place on a truly significant scale. </p>
<p>Upskilling initiatives will not entirely solve the productivity puzzle. But it is a good start and best applied to the private sector. The public sector, which includes the NHS, consumes a significant amount of public resources and yet struggles to meet the demand for its services. It is in desperate need of a productivity boost, particularly given its reliance on EU workers. Yet, my research found that the Investors in People accreditation was not as effective in improving skills in the public sector. It may therefore need its own specially-designed upskilling programme. </p>
<p>Needless to say, solving the UK’s productivity puzzle is a daunting prospect. But the evidence around upskilling shows that at least some of the country’s problems can be fixed through rolling out more training programmes. The talent is there. It needs to be better developed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100271/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Getinet Astatike Haile does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The prospect of a post-Brexit talent exodus and the ongoing productivity puzzle underline the urgency of developing homegrown talent.Getinet Astatike Haile, Assistant Professor in Industrial Economics, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/988522018-07-02T03:33:28Z2018-07-02T03:33:28ZEmployment services aren’t working for older jobseekers, jobactive staff or employers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225274/original/file-20180628-112601-7e834f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">While the federal government promotes the employment of older people through the jobactive network, in practice it's not working well for them.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://blog.jobactive.gov.au/why-recruiting-mature-age-workers-makes-good-business-sense">Australian Government/jobactive</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>While the <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/employment/connecting-people-with-jobs-key-issues-for-raising-labour-market-participation-in-australia_9789264269637-en#page31%5D">mature-age unemployment rate is low</a> compared to youth unemployment, <a href="http://library.bsl.org.au/jspui/bitstream/1/7905/4/Workforce_vulnerabilities_in_midlife_and_beyond_research_summary_2015.pdf">older people are more likely to remain unemployed</a>. The <a href="https://www.sharethepie.com.au/">low rate of Newstart Allowance</a> means they are doing it tough. Our two-year study, <a href="https://www.bsl.org.au/research/projects/enhancing-employment-services-for-mature-age-jobseekers/">Enhancing employment services for mature-age jobseekers</a>, suggests government-funded employment services are not working well for these older jobseekers, the services’ staff or employers. </p>
<p>We also identify steps that need to be taken to ensure that future contracts for employment service provider contracts do find work for these jobseekers.</p>
<p>With the pension age rising to 67 by July 2023, people are being encouraged to keep working for longer. But they must also contend with the changes wrought by a <a href="https://www.workingforeveryone.com.au/world-of-work-has-changed/">40-year shift</a> towards fewer low-skilled manual jobs, increased requirements for post-compulsory educational qualifications, and more casual, contract, labour-hire and part-time jobs. Technological change, with automation of routine jobs, increased global market competition and the offshoring of jobs, and social change, with more women in the labour force, have combined to dramatically reshape the labour market.</p>
<h2>What’s wrong with employment services?</h2>
<p>For-profit and not-for-profit providers deliver the current iteration of government-funded employment services, <a href="https://www.jobs.gov.au/jobactive">jobactive</a>, under contract to the federal Department of Employment. The contract ends in 2020.</p>
<p>Our research into how older jobseekers are faring with jobactive providers focused on four regions with high rates of mature-age unemployment: western Melbourne, north-eastern Melbourne, south-eastern Melbourne and the inner city. We interviewed 30 mature-age jobseekers (<a href="http://library.bsl.org.au/showitem.php?handle=1/10835">defined as 45 or older</a>), 32 jobactive staff and 21 employers and key stakeholders.</p>
<p>Older jobseekers need help from jobactive providers to identify transferable skills. They also need training linked to job opportunities. As Daisy, in her later 50s, explained: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We want to stay off unemployment and we want to feel like a human being, a contributing human being.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And that means “helping us find jobs that fit our skills and our strengths”.</p>
<p>Instead, jobseekers’ appointments are dominated by paperwork. </p>
<p>Jobactive <a href="http://library.bsl.org.au/showitem.php?handle=1/10836">employment services staff</a> want to help older jobseekers. But they told us they do not have enough time or resources to do this because of the burdens of contractual compliance and high caseloads. An employment consultant explained the pressures:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We’re meant to make sure their job plan’s suitable, we’re meant to refer them to positions … We’ve got on the database, we’re meant to scan their job search, calculate their job search for Centrelink — there’s a lot you’ve got to do in 30 minutes. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Compliance with the contract and enforcing Centrelink’s <a href="https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/enablers/mutual-obligation-requirements/29751">“mutual obligation” requirements</a> sometimes get in the way of better supporting jobseekers. </p>
<p>The employers we interviewed had little awareness or understanding of jobactive as a public employment service. This limited awareness is reflected in the <a href="https://docs.jobs.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/the_australian_recruitment_industry_accessible_version_august_2016_final.pdf">low use of employment services by employers</a>.</p>
<p>Few of the <a href="http://library.bsl.org.au/showitem.php?handle=1/10837">employers we interviewed</a> use jobactive. Some said they were reluctant to use jobactive (if they knew about it at all).</p>
<p>This was because of concern “about the type of candidate they’re going to get”. Employers were cautious about recruiting any age group through publicly funded employment services, because they were peppered with unsuitable job applicants. One employer said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Don’t give me 12 people that actually don’t want to work. KPIs in that area don’t work for employers. If they’re not right, they’re not right, so don’t waste your time … We stopped working with a provider because they were doing … the KPI, tick-a-box thing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As another employer who used jobactive told his employment service provider: “Don’t give me a lemon when I’m after apples.”</p>
<h2>How can these services be improved?</h2>
<p>Employment services face many challenges in promoting older jobseekers to employers who may be reluctant to take on staff they perceive as <a href="https://mspgh.unimelb.edu.au/ageing-industry-network/newsletter-issue-7-june-2017/ageism-isnt-as-simple-as-it-seems">“rusty” or “threatening”</a>. Programs such as the now-defunct <a href="https://olderworkers.com.au/news/corporate-champions/">Corporate Champions</a> can help to promote the benefits of age-diverse workforces among employers. However, these run the risk of <a href="https://percapita.org.au/our_work/whats-age-got-to-do-with-it/">reinforcing age stereotypes</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://library.bsl.org.au/showitem.php?handle=1/10838">Our research</a> finds that flexible, tailored support is required to help older jobseekers into sustainable employment. This need not involve special programs. Instead, it will be important to build on the insights from the <a href="https://www.jobs.gov.au/career-transition-assistance">Career Transition Assistance Program</a>, the expansion of the <a href="https://www.jobs.gov.au/national-work-experience-programme">National Work Experience Program</a> and the establishment of <a href="https://www.jobs.gov.au/pathway-work-pilots">Pathway to Work Pilots</a>. </p>
<p>These features should be integrated into the <a href="https://www.jobs.gov.au/future-employment-services">next employment services contract</a>. The next contract should allow more flexible and tailored responses to cohorts such as mature-age jobseekers. This can be achieved through smaller caseloads, more time to work with jobseekers and less time on compliance. </p>
<p>Tackling the challenges of mature-age unemployment requires better matching of candidates with vacancies. A skills assessment should be undertaken with all older jobseekers. This will identify transferable skills and enable better matching with vacancies and with training. </p>
<p>Staff also need training, especially in identification of transferable skills and career guidance. </p>
<p>Small changes can have big impacts. For example, jobseekers should be able to fulfil their mutual obligation requirements through volunteering that is relevant to their experience. </p>
<p>But broader policy change is needed too. In particular, we need a focus on fostering local economic development that creates jobs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98852/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dina Bowman is a Principal Research Fellow in the Research and Policy Centre at the Brotherhood of St Laurence. In that capacity she receives funding from Financial Literacy Australia, ANZ and the Brotherhood of St Laurence, This study was funded by the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation—Eldon & Anne Foote Trust (Innovation Grant 2015). She is a member of Per Capita's research advisory group.</span></em></p>A two-year study finds dissatisfaction with current arrangements, but also identifies small changes that can make a big difference in helping to find suitable jobs for older workers.Dina Bowman, Principal Research Fellow, Research & Policy Centre, Brotherhood of St Laurence, and Honorary Senior Fellow, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/836132017-09-13T23:05:11Z2017-09-13T23:05:11ZIs Canada’s skills shortage real, or are businesses to blame?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185872/original/file-20170913-20306-xvr5hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=607%2C5%2C2494%2C2158&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Canadian companies say there's a shortage of skilled workers, but are they investing in training?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Apparently Canada’s labour market has a problem.</p>
<p>Plebians, pundits and politicians alike say Canadian employers <a href="http://www.timescolonist.com/cibc-report-warns-of-education-skills-gap-unless-post-secondary-system-changes-1.22255506?utm_source=Academica+Top+Ten&utm_campaign=e197fc2577-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_08_30&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b4928536cf-e197fc2577-47734789_%20which%20in%20turn%20references%20this%202017%20CIBC%20report%20https://economics.cibccm.com/economicsweb/cds?ID=3640&TYPE=EC_PDF">face a serious skills mismatch</a>, or even a full-throttle skills gap. Job applicants are variously described as over-educated, under-adapted or over-credentialed.</p>
<p>Positions are reputedly going unfilled because employers have trouble finding workers with the right skills — hard skills, soft skills, IT skills, STEM skills, writing skills or presentation skills — not to mention those who possess traits like punctuality, discipline or a can-do attitude. </p>
<p>We know these problems exist because studies say so. Mind you, these reports are often written by consultants (e.g. <a href="https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/management/canadas-skills-gap-widening-survey-shows/article14911139/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&">McKinsey</a>) hired by large employers, industry associations or chambers of commerce. </p>
<p>Even when these studies make nuanced claims, the headlines shout that universities are to blame. And this position is <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/05/08/universities-cant-solve-our-skills-gap-problem-because-they-caused-it/">parroted widely</a>. </p>
<p>The common prescription for this purported ailment is to compel universities to produce workers who are better suited to today’s (and tomorrow’s) workforce. In Ontario, we even have a non-profit that adopts this position, the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (<a href="http://www.heqco.ca">HEQCO</a>).</p>
<p>But before we start implementing solutions to an allegedly serious problem, let’s take a breath and review some facts. </p>
<h2>Where are the high wages?</h2>
<p>Proponents of a skills-mismatch crisis generally point the finger at universities for not doing enough to turn students into “workforce-ready” workers. An alleged glut of under-employed or unemployed graduates is provided as evidence of a skills mismatch. </p>
<p>However, as the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/unemployment-and-the-skills-mismatch-story-overblown-and-unpersuasive">Brookings Institute</a> notes (and this is consistent with mainstream economic theory), if there is in fact a skills mismatch, it would be reflected in disequilibrium between the supply and demand of workers. How would we know such a disequilibrium exists?</p>
<p>In fields without enough qualified workers, you’d expect wages to rise as companies compete for a limited pool of candidates over the short term. </p>
<p>Managers might grumble about high wages, especially if the work is labour-intensive, but what a lovely time those workers would have, picking and choosing among employers. </p>
<p>In fact, consistent with economic theory, we did see this in Alberta’s oilpatch earlier this decade. But that was a regional event, common to boom-and-bust resource extraction industries, and not reflective of the national economy as a whole. </p>
<h2>Standard schooling provides basic training</h2>
<p>In the longer term, companies with labour-intensive work might substitute machines for human beings, even as ambitious people strive to acquire those in-demand skills associated with higher pay.</p>
<p>One way these people could get those skills is to be hired into an entry-level position, then be trained in-house with the necessary company-specific skills. In other words, the employer makes an investment in its workforce. </p>
<p>Another way applicants could get those industry- or occupation-specific skills is to pay for the training themselves. </p>
<p>Frankly, for general industry-specific and occupation-specific skills, workers usually already do this, in part by going to school. General skills such as literacy and numeracy are acquired through kindergarten to Grade 12. Industry- or occupation-specific skills are gained through a mix of apprenticeships, volunteering, internships and colleges. </p>
<p>And let’s not forget universities. They provide students with the opportunity to develop not just industry- or occupation-specific skills, but (even in the much-maligned humanities or social sciences) the critical thinking skills needed to become a lifelong learner. </p>
<h2>Asinine to blame universities</h2>
<p>For practical reasons, formal schooling cannot provide training in company-specific skills, or in skills that relate to the unique functioning of one company. Company-specific skills need to be acquired in the context in which they will be used — at the company in question.</p>
<p>Even if we ignore the cost of higher education providing up-to-date firm- or site-specific training, curriculum developers have no crystal ball. They cannot foresee all the changes that will shape market conditions and identify skills that will and won’t be needed in 10 years. If industries can’t reliably predict the future, it is asinine to expect higher education to do so. </p>
<p>Even Ontario’s Higher Education Quality Council <a href="http://blog-en.heqco.ca/2014/03/martin-hicks-the-alchemists-dream/">agrees</a>. And to be fair to HEQCO, they have published <a href="http://www.heqco.ca/en-ca/Research/ResPub/Pages/The-Great-Skills-Divide-Bridging-the-Divide.aspx">reports that should caution us to be more careful about alleging skills-mismatches</a>, suggesting they indeed are interested in evidence-based research.</p>
<p>What evidence do we see for this alleged skills mismatch? Certainly, Canada’s labour market data doesn’t support such a claim. There is no over-heated national labour market caused by an under-supply of qualified workers. <a href="http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/labr69a-eng.htm">Pay rates aren’t skyrocketing as they would if employers were caught in a spiral of upward wages</a>.</p>
<h2>Bankruptcies aren’t up</h2>
<p>Given the lack of headlines, presumably myriad companies aren’t going out of business because they cannot find enough skilled workers. Certainly Canada’s business bankruptcy statistics <a href="https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/bsf-osb.nsf/eng/br02234.html">don’t show a trend of steadily mounting bankruptcies</a> but instead appear to reflect more general business cycle conditions.</p>
<p>And those consultants’ reports asserting a skills mismatch? </p>
<p>Scrutinize them beyond the executive summary, and the data often don’t substantiate the claims. In cases where they do provide information about employers’ training practices (e.g. <a href="http://www.chamber.ca/media/blog/131009_Upskilling-the-Workforce/">The Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s 2013 Upskilling the Workforce report</a>), they reveal that employers are actually spending less and less on employee training. </p>
<p>Another <a href="http://www.td.com/document/PDF/economics/special/JobsInCanada_exec_summary.pdf">2013 Special Report</a> by TD Bank Economics corroborates this claim, and more generally questions the evidence of a skills mismatch. (That claims about skills mismatch continue to be made even after these kinds of reports have been around for most of this decade suggest that evidence-based research is being ignored. That, however, is not my current point.)</p>
<p>If employers care enough about their own operations, they should invest in training their workforce in company-specific skills.</p>
<p>Maybe we don’t have a skills mismatch. Maybe we have a wage mismatch. Or a disconnect between employers’ sense of entitlement and their responsibility to their own operations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83613/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeff Boggs does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Canadian firms say there’s a dire shortage of skilled workers. But recent studies suggest they’re not investing in training, apparently expecting universities to train their employees for them.Jeff Boggs, Associate Professor of Geography and Tourism Studies, specializing in economic geography, regional development and cultural industries, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/830642017-09-01T12:25:15Z2017-09-01T12:25:15ZWant a job? It’s still about education.<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184253/original/file-20170831-22427-2p1jv0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C668%2C3239%2C2459&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Specialized training is becoming more and more important to financial success in today's labor market.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.aetc.af.mil/News/Photos/igphoto/2001535925/">U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Michael Ellis</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During the 20th century, there was nothing that could help you achieve labor market success more than <a href="http://educationnext.org/the-human-capital-century/">a good education</a>. Even today, education is one of the strongest predictors of <a href="https://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.htm">whether someone is employed and how much he or she is paid</a>.</p>
<p>Yet, the rules have changed. A high school diploma in 1950 (and maybe into the 1980s) could get you a solid, middle-class job. But a diploma today is a minimum requirement to get nearly any job – and, for most, it’s not enough to get you into the middle class.</p>
<p>As a scholar of education policy, and of career and technical education in particular, I have seen incredible changes in technology and the workforce. And, while degree requirements have changed, education continues to be the cornerstone of job preparation and success.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184254/original/file-20170831-25608-qmzk6x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184254/original/file-20170831-25608-qmzk6x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184254/original/file-20170831-25608-qmzk6x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184254/original/file-20170831-25608-qmzk6x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184254/original/file-20170831-25608-qmzk6x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184254/original/file-20170831-25608-qmzk6x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184254/original/file-20170831-25608-qmzk6x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A high school education was generally enough to get you into a good middle-class job in the 1950s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gary_Plant_Tubular_Steel_Corporation.jpg">Public domain</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A changing workforce</h2>
<p>So what’s changed? The shift in the economic value of education has largely been driven by <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2728062">increased demands for technical knowledge and skill</a>. These demands come from the evolution of technologies and trends in the offshoring of routine, middle-skill jobs. In short, the middle-class jobs that remain simply require more expertise, which usually comes from more education.</p>
<p>The result has been a growing gulf between high- and low-wage earners. Indeed, the gap between those with only a high school diploma or GED and those with more education is at <a href="http://www.epi.org/blog/looking-at-the-latest-wage-data-by-education-level/">an all-time high</a>. And there’s no reason to expect this trend to reverse itself.</p>
<p><iframe id="EPC8C" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/EPC8C/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>What’s more, there’s been considerable debate about the existence of a <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608707/the-myth-of-the-skills-gap/">skill gap</a> in the workforce: a suggestion that young people today simply <a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/is-there-really-a-skills-gap.html">don’t have the skills demanded by employers</a>. Indeed, there are high levels of <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cbc.asp">underemployment among younger workers</a> in the U.S., which could suggest that employers are dissatisfied with what young applicants have to offer.</p>
<p>Where once employers might have offered <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0019793915619904">on-the-job training</a>, this appears to be in decline. It may be that the skill set required now is more technical and more appropriately handled by formal education programs, or it may be the demand for profit margins have diminished employer appetite for funding such programs. Whatever the cause, young applicants are expected to have certain skills already acquired before they will be hired.</p>
<h2>What does a normal high school degree get you?</h2>
<p>Most young people entering the workforce bring with them the skills they acquired in school. What they can expect to achieve depends a great deal on their highest level of education, and the skills that employers expect come with it.</p>
<p>Earning a high school diploma is more or less required in the current job market, but the average wages of those with a high school degree or less are dropping, and the number of attainable jobs for those with a high school diploma or less has been in <a href="http://www.epi.org/blog/looking-at-the-latest-wage-data-by-education-level/">long-term decline</a>.</p>
<p>While it may be easier to get a job with only a high school education <a href="https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2014/article/education-level-and-jobs.htm">in some states than in others</a>, this is no longer the norm in most places.</p>
<h2>What does technical education get you?</h2>
<p>Technical education in high school is one area where job placement may be more of a bright spot. Research shows that the work-based learning and technical skills acquired in such programs <a href="https://www.mdrc.org/sites/default/files/full_50.pdf">lead to better employment outcomes</a> and that the odds of being <a href="https://edexcellence.net/publications/career-and-technical-education-in-high-school-does-it-improve-student-outcomes">employed right out of high school</a> are also higher.</p>
<p>There’s even some evidence that participation in career and technical education programs in high school can <a href="https://edexcellence.net/publications/career-and-technical-education-in-high-school-does-it-improve-student-outcomes">ease the transition to college</a>, especially two-year colleges.</p>
<p>Though initial employment outcomes may be better for those with technical education in high school, there’s concern among some that over the long term these students may not be better off than their nontechnical peers. Specifically, though studies have been limited in scope, researchers have found that the lack of a college degree and the reliance on specific skills (that may go out of date) <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w17504">could reduce lifetime earnings</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184256/original/file-20170831-22403-1imisah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184256/original/file-20170831-22403-1imisah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184256/original/file-20170831-22403-1imisah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184256/original/file-20170831-22403-1imisah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184256/original/file-20170831-22403-1imisah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184256/original/file-20170831-22403-1imisah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184256/original/file-20170831-22403-1imisah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Technical high school students face better job prospects after graduation. However, their long-term earning potential may suffer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mexico-city-july-15th-2017-two-702578356?src=O6DX5jljl-CSK7xK7mTQJg-1-22">Schlyx/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What does a college degree get you?</h2>
<p>Job placement, employment and pay remain highest for those with a bachelor’s degree or higher, with <a href="https://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.htm">larger and growing returns to master’s degrees</a>. Yet, despite the good track record, more recent evidence suggests that wage benefits for college degrees are <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w22935">smaller than in the past</a>.</p>
<p>These lessening benefits of a college degree – along with <a href="http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/student-debt-rising-worldwide">rising levels of student loan debt</a> – have encouraged a push for <a href="https://www.edutopia.org/blog/college-and-career-readiness-redefining-ready-anne-obrien">more career-aligned college education</a> that prepares graduates for well-paying and available jobs.</p>
<h2>Where we go from here</h2>
<p>The labor movement of the late 19th through mid-20th centuries brought sharp increases in unionization in a nation whose economy was largely driven by manufacturing and production. As the 20th century waned, the high-tech, information-driven economy required skills beyond what was typically acquired in high school.</p>
<p>Educational models have been changing to meet these demands.</p>
<p>High schools have added technical education programs that mirror growing demand for health care, IT and advanced manufacturing, while community colleges have <a href="http://capseecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/career-technical-labor-market-outcomes.pdf">modified and grown their programming</a> to offer certificates and associates degrees that better align with the changing demands for labor and technical skill.</p>
<p>The challenge in the decades ahead will continue to be how best to help young people acquire the skills necessary to earn a living wage – both initially and across their lifetimes. I believe this will require educational programs that respond to the changing economic landscape, as well as innovative worker retraining programs for those displaced by technological advances and the continued loss of jobs overseas.</p>
<p>What will not change is the central role of education in helping Americans succeed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83064/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shaun M. Dougherty receives funding from the Institute for Education Sciences, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation to conduct research related to career and technical educaiton. </span></em></p>As technology and the labor market rapidly evolve, so too does the value of a high school diploma. Despite the changes, one thing remains true: Education is still the cornerstone of career success.Shaun M. Dougherty, Assistant Professor of Education & Public Policy, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/830442017-08-31T20:23:47Z2017-08-31T20:23:47ZThere is no apprenticeships ‘crisis’ in Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183934/original/file-20170830-23670-me3vib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When separating out apprenticeships and traineeships, it becomes clear that apprenticeships are not in crisis.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/SpeedKingz</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s rare to find an issue that unites both sides of politics, employers and trade unions, yet these unlikely allies have all claimed there is an apprenticeships “crisis”. </p>
<p>In 2016, Labor leader Bill Shorten <a href="http://www.billshorten.com.au/more_apprenticeships_means_more_good_jobs_and_real_skills">said</a> that the number of Australians training for apprenticeships was at its lowest level since 2001, blaming Coalition funding cuts for plummeting numbers. </p>
<p>This year, the assistant minister for vocational education and skills, Karen Andrews, <a href="https://ministers.education.gov.au/andrews/skilling-australia-fund">explained</a> the Coalition government’s new Skilling Australians Fund would restore “alarming” apprenticeship numbers to 2012 levels. She said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Labor’s withdrawal of employer incentives contributed to a massive decline. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Australian Council of Trade Unions <a href="http://www.actu.org.au/actu-media/media-releases/2016/statement-from-actu-president-ged-kearney-on-free-falling-apprenticeship-numbers">claims</a> apprenticeship numbers have experienced a “catastrophic drop” under the Abbott/Turnbull government. </p>
<p>The Business Council of Australia, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Australian Industry Group <a href="http://www.bca.com.au/media/coalition-of-business-groups-calls-for-decisive-action-to-rescue-australias-ailing-apprenticeship-system">also claim</a> that apprenticeships have declined by 45% since 2012. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.mitchellinstitute.org.au/reports/finding-the-truth-in-the-apprenticeships-debate/">new report from the Mitchell Institute</a> exposes some of the misconceptions behind these claims, finding some truth and a more purposeful way forward in the apprenticeships debate.</p>
<h2>What’s causing the confusion?</h2>
<p>The term “apprenticeship” can be misleading, as it is often used to refer to both traditional apprenticeships and traineeships. Both apprenticeships and traineeships involve a combination of employment and a formal contract of training, but have quite different backgrounds and applications. </p>
<p>Apprenticeships are largely in the trades – areas like electrical, plumbing, construction and commercial cooking – and typically involve a four-year contract. Most people still associate apprenticeships with trades. </p>
<p>Traineeships, while also combining employment and formal training, were created by the Commonwealth government in the 1980s to provide job opportunities for young people, particularly in the services sector. </p>
<p>Both apprenticeships and traineeships have an important role to play. However, information (and numbers) relating to both systems are often presented together as “apprenticeships”, creating a misleading picture about the state of the traditional trade-based apprenticeship system.</p>
<h2>What’s the real story?</h2>
<p>When separating out apprenticeships and traineeships, it becomes clear that apprenticeships are not in crisis. In fact, some trade apprenticeships have experienced growth in recent years. </p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/5GjQD/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="500"></iframe>
<hr>
<p>The chart above shows trade commencements (mostly traditional trade apprenticeships) have been relatively stable over the past 20 years or so, and are certainly not falling off a cliff. </p>
<p>Non-trade commencements (mostly representing traineeships), on the other hand, have experienced a sharp decline since 2012. </p>
<p>However, our report shows the high numbers of traineeships in 2011 to 2012 were caused by a number of policy changes. These include the availability of employer incentives, and the expansion of the trainee system to cover existing, not just new workers, and part-time as well as full-time staff. </p>
<p>Together, these policies made it very appealing for companies to take on a trainee, or to <em>make</em> an existing employee a trainee, as in some cases the incentive acted as an effective wage subsidy. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.australianapprenticeships.gov.au/sites/ausapps/files/publication-documents/ncverreport4.pdf">Evidence emerged</a> that these incentives were being misused, and the Commonwealth Government rightly scaled back eligibility from 2012 to 2013. This explains the steady rise and then significant drop in trainee commencements over this period.</p>
<p>However, these changes did not affect funding for trade apprenticeships at all. </p>
<h2>What’s the story with apprenticeships?</h2>
<p>The situation with traditional trade apprenticeships is more complex. A number of factors influence apprenticeship commencements across different occupations. </p>
<p>The first point to make is that not all trade apprenticeships have declined since 2013. As the chart below shows, some have grown – and the extent of decline varies between occupations. </p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/nEkS8/2/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="560"></iframe>
<hr>
<p>If funding changes do not account for the decline in commencements, what other factors might explain it?</p>
<p>The answer is a range of economic and social factors, including negative and low growth in full-time employment throughout 2013 to 2016, ongoing structural change in the composition of the labour market and the relevance of the current apprenticeship model in some occupations, as well as supply factors, including potentially a decline in the quality of the apprenticeship applicant pool. </p>
<h2>Where to from here?</h2>
<p>Both sides of politics, employers and unions should – and clearly do – care about apprenticeships. </p>
<p>However, the apprenticeship system would be better served if less time was spent on political point-scoring and more on acknowledging this complex picture.</p>
<p>Both apprenticeships and traineeships have a vital role to play in building the skills base of the future Australian workforce. But they also need to remain relevant and responsive to changing needs, and sit within an integrated and considered tertiary education and training system, encompassing a range of VET and higher education options.</p>
<p>There’s a long way to go to achieve that goal, but finding some truth in the apprenticeships debate is a good start.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83044/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The so-called ‘crisis’ has united both sides of politics, employers and trade unions, but wrongly conflates apprenticeships and traineeships to skew the picture.Peter Noonan, Mitchell Professorial Fellow, Victoria UniversitySarah Pilcher, Policy Fellow, Mitchell Institute, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/805422017-07-09T19:55:02Z2017-07-09T19:55:02ZWe know innovation is key – but there’s little agreement on exactly what it is<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176863/original/file-20170705-16488-160fd5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For employers, innovation is seen as a purposeful process or task, with structure and format. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://stocksnap.io/photo/T4WIVDIPBZ">Seabass Creatives/Stocksnap</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We want the best education for our children and we want them to have the innovation skills needed for the jobs of tomorrow. But we don’t agree on what innovation really means. </p>
<p>My <a href="http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1142/S021987701450045X">research</a> has found that employers and students have varying perceptions of innovation, and this affects the employability of young people transitioning into the future workforce. We need to move beyond these differences so that we give young people the best chance for success in the innovation age.</p>
<h2>Innovate or evaporate: Innovation is considered a central skill for future jobs</h2>
<p>Internationally, innovation represents the lifeblood of <a href="http://www.wipo.int/publications/en/details.jsp?id=4193">modern economies</a>. </p>
<p>In Australia, the <a href="https://www.innovation.gov.au/page/agenda">National Innovation Agenda</a> calls on educators to equip students with the innovation skills they need to survive. It estimates that 75% of jobs in the next decade will need skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Yet enrolments in STEM subjects have been declining steadily.</p>
<p>Additionally, a 2016 Foundation for Young Australians <a href="http://unlimitedpotential.fya.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/The-new-basics_final_Web_copyright-2.pdf">report</a> revealed that the jobs of the future will demand 260% more creativity (and innovation) skills than jobs of the past, which are likely to face automation. They found that job seekers with these skills will also likely attract higher salaries. </p>
<p>This means that innovation is a central part to any future job seeker’s skill set. However, there is a lack of consensus on what innovation skills actually are.</p>
<h2>A rift in ideas: differing perceptions of innovation</h2>
<p>My <a href="http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1142/S021987701450045X">research</a> investigated the perceptions of innovation by students and their employers in Australia. </p>
<p>Students were found to perceive innovation as a very fluid process that does not require any boundaries or rules. This understanding reflects the loose and creative <a href="http://www.boredpanda.com/coolest-offices-in-the-world/">representations of innovation</a> in popular culture and media.</p>
<p>However, employers view innovation as a more systematic, purposeful process, which involves the development and commercialisation of new products and services. Commercialisation is not just coming up with a concept or new idea and keeping it in an office, lab or home. It includes the entire process needed to take it out to consumers. This requires making it into a product or service (like a new app or device), marketing it and then delivering it to users, for some form of financial gain. </p>
<p>Unlike students, employers stressed the need to adhere to “rules” when innovating. For instance, in designing software systems, following rules and standards such as integrating with existing technologies and platforms was necessary. </p>
<p>Other standards that can help innovation include intellectual property protection and regulatory standards, as in the case of new medical devices. Adherence to these “rules” boosts the success of innovations in helping them to be more widely adopted by consumers.</p>
<h2>Student preparedness for a changing labour market</h2>
<p>The perceptual differences reflect the lack of preparedness of students for the workplace. This has detrimental consequences for their future economic survival. </p>
<p>The downturn of traditional manufacturing has lead to the <a href="https://au.news.yahoo.com/video/watch/33914446/holden-to-close-australian-manufacturing-plant-on-october-20-2017/#page1">closure</a> of many companies. Increasingly, students will need to <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/innovation-the-key-to-future-iru-chairman/news-story/212709fb3c9eb846af7bc2adfeeb66ef">create their own jobs</a>. </p>
<p>Understanding that innovation is a purposeful, systematic process that needs a great deal of persistence and clear commercial outcomes is necessary for maintaining their livelihoods. </p>
<p>Additionally, recognising how their ideas for new products and services interact with standards is essential for ideas to be viable. Overcoming these perceptual differences is important for young Australians to rise to the challenge as we try to build new firms and industries to replace the old.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177239/original/file-20170706-16068-euikuq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177239/original/file-20170706-16068-euikuq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177239/original/file-20170706-16068-euikuq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177239/original/file-20170706-16068-euikuq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177239/original/file-20170706-16068-euikuq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177239/original/file-20170706-16068-euikuq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177239/original/file-20170706-16068-euikuq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Young Australians would benefit from more placement opportunities to gain industry experience and learn innovation in the workplace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/health-care-researchers-working-life-science-639884194?src=bojqWFUPsMuwmCmx065UdA-4-15">Matej Kastelic/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Creating opportunities for students to re-learn innovation skills</h2>
<p>While there remains a challenge in rewiring the understanding of innovation that most students hold, there is also hope. Experiential learning, which allows students to immerse deeply in the workplace for a substantial period, is a productive way of equipping students with the desired innovation skills for their working future.</p>
<p>This kind of opportunity can throw students into the middle of the innovation process and develop their understanding of innovation in the workplace. </p>
<p>Such programs exist in various professional disciplines, such as engineering, where students work on innovative industry projects for at least 12 weeks. We need to build upon these programs and incorporate opportunities for a wider range of students to gain workplace experience. This will help them develop and establish professional networks, obtain knowledge of standards and how their industry works. </p>
<p>This is also not a one-way street. If employers are looking for students with certain innovation skills, they can create more space for students to gain them, such as offering more placement opportunities to students. </p>
<p>Some employers may not be able to do this. But there are other options, such as partnering with universities to deliver guest talks or mentoring students. </p>
<p>These approaches can equip students with the right skill set to innovate into the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80542/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Giselle Rampersad does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research shows that young people and employers have different ideas about innovation and the future of work.Giselle Rampersad, Senior Lecturer in Innovation, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.