Jobs for the Future

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Claudia Pompa – Private Sector and Markets Team

October 2014

We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist…using technologies that haven’t yet been

invented…in order to solve problems we don’t even know are

problems yet

Richard Riley, Secretary of Education under Clinton

The great mismatch…

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75 million young people worldwide are out of work

1 billion workers without secondary education are expected to be part of the labour force by 2020

Global shortage of 38 to 40 million highly skilled workers – needed to raise productivity and drive growth – by 2020

The inability to secure talent with the right skills is not only a major constraint to businesses’ bottom lines, but also prevents firms from scaling up operations, meeting demand in new locations and launching new products and services.

The question….

The underlying question:

What skills will be needed for the jobs of the future

and how do we make sure individuals are trained in these skills

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Trends that will shape the future of jobs

Global drivers

• Demographic change and migration – High mobility of labour– Multi-generational workforce– Growing role of women in the

workforce

• Global integration– Emerging economies playing globally,

increasing competition– Development of new business models – The shrinking middle

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Trends that will shape the future of jobs

Global drivers

• Technological innovation – Digitalisation of production – Big data– Digital economy

• Shift to Asia

• Collaboration and cross-disciplinary– Convergence of disciplines– Collaborative business models –

crowdsourcing economy?

• Scarcity of natural resources

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Trends that will shape the future of jobs

Regional drivers

• Agriculture– Has great potential but….

• Shit to Asia– Yes…but away from China

• Green growth– Clear opportunities to benefit

from first comer advantages  

• Trade agreements– ASEAN Economic Community– Trans Pacific Partnership– Economic Community of West

African States (ECOWAS) Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)

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Key sectors

The Sectors seem the same…

• Health and care• Services• IT• Education

…but look very different from the inside

• Manufacturing• Creative industry• Construction

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The future…

The new normal: Too few high-skill workers and not enough jobs for medium and low-skill workers unless…

• We equip a growing young workforce with skills required for the jobs of the future• Re-equip the current workforce with the skills required to keep up with a changing world• The greatest challenge lies in the technology- and knowledge intensive sectors that also

have the highest potential for economic growth and employment.

We still need to understand better which practices and interventions work and which ones can be scaled up.

Most skills initiatives today serve a few hundred or perhaps a few thousand young people, we must be thinking in terms of millions.

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“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn,

unlearn and relearn”

Alvin Toffler

ODI is the UK’s leading independent think tank on international development and humanitarian issues. We aim to inspire and inform policy and practice to reduce poverty by locking together high-quality applied research and practical policy advice.

The views presented here are those of the speaker, and do not necessarily represent the views of ODI or our partners.

Overseas Development Institute

203 Blackfriars Road, London, SE1 8NJ

T: +44 207 9220 300

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www.odi.org.uk

c.pompa@odi.org.uk