Work is changing. Training needs to keep up

World Youth Skills Day (15 July), is an important time for people to celebrate and recognize the incredible work educators do in providing young people with the skills they need to have rewarding careers.

However, rapid changes are coming to the world of work, such as the adoption of AI, which is expected to be adopted by nearly 75% of companies.

If young people are to keep up in this new world of work, the skills being taught need a refresh.

Teaching technical skills is a necessity

Innovation is occurring at rapid pace across the board. From generative AI to cloud computing, we’ve seen previously unthinkable developments become commonplace in all industries. Comparing today to what industries looked like a decade ago shows us how prominent digital technologies have become in our working lives.

Matt Waring, Education Channel Manager at Logitech, agrees, sharing exsluively with UNLEASH that educators need to keep up with the pace of innovation, saying “it’s vital that young people are equipped with the skills to work in a digital-first world. This means it’s even more important that teachers have the skills, backed by the right solutions, to support this”.

Isabelle Blanchot, Chief for Business Platform at AND Digital echoes a similar view. She believes a hands-on approach such as “working alongside schools to provide tailored training sessions and work experience opportunities will help young people get prepared for an ever-evolving digital world.”

Blanchot adds that gender representation in education must also be addressed, stating “it is essential there is a focus on female teachers being equipped with the same skills as their male peers, to ensure girls at school have role models promoting STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) careers.”

Similarly Aaron Skonnard, co-founder & CEO at Pluralsight, sees a gap in digital skills teaching, noting “although younger workers are considered ‘digitally-native’ with huge potential to embrace the latest technology, we are seeing that they may actually be less equipped for the future of technical work than we thought”.

Skonnard continues: “The pace of technological change has created a marked gap between the tech skills learnt in traditional education and the ones needed to succeed in the modern tech industry.”

Businesses need to step up and take action

Businesses will benefit the most from young people having additional digital skills, which is why they need to take action in skills training for the next generation.

Adrian Fieldhouse, Managing Director, Government and Transport, Sopra Steria UK agrees: “It’s critical that businesses take an avid interest in the workforce of the future, supporting, encouraging and helping young people to understand how they can shape society with technology. Only by doing so can we build a diverse and skilled pipeline of young tech talent and drive positive change in business and society.”

Businesses can also be more agile with training than traditional education can. James Fisher, Chief Strategy Officer at Qlik, believes “by making learning in the workplace a deliberate and ongoing process, young employees will be well equipped with the data skills needed to build a pipeline of talent for the data driven world of work we find ourselves in”.

There is proof businesses being involved in training helps young people feel more confident and knowledgeable about the future of work. On her communications internship at the company, Rebecca Newman, a Communications Intern at SAP comments she has “had the opportunity to work on real-life, purpose-driven projects across a variety of teams.” This in turn has given her “invaluable experience in areas such as problem-solving, teamwork and critical thinking – all vital skills for the world of work, that are harder to learn in a classroom.”

This has been particularly important to Newman, who has found “navigating the current economic landscape” is particularly challenging “for graduates, due to the competitive nature of many industries.”

In addition, integrating young people can benefit businesses. Jillian Moore, Global Advisory Lead and Executive Sustainability Sponsor at Avanade, thinks we “need to continually foster success among emerging leaders and consider that, with new generations, comes new perspectives, priorities and values at work.

“As a generation of digital natives enters the workplace, business leaders need to ensure we nurture these existing skillsets to thrive and inspire, as well as listening to them to learn ourselves.”

This is echoed by Ed Challis, Head of AI Strategy at UiPath who agrees young people are “catalysts for major workplace change”. Challis sees “the skills they learn today will set the precedent for careers of the future” and “business leaders need to be prepared for the AI-first mindset youth talent will arrive with and how their expectations on work will be vastly different from generations before”.

Keeping up with change by developing new skills

Given how fast the workplace is transforming, the skill to adapt has never been more important. As Lucid Software’s Chief Evangelist Bryan Stallings says, “we must develop an essential people skill–approaching complex and changing environments with an open and adaptive mindset. The skill of adaptability is vital today in our complex and rapidly changing organizations because it enables people to approach change without fear and be among the first to embrace it with curiosity and positivity.”

Lauren McCann, Head of Figma for Education, agrees ’softer’, less technical, skills will remain important, regardless of the future of work.

McCann aims to give students “the skills they’ll need no matter what the age of AI brings—problem solving, communication, collaboration, iterative thinking—while also helping them transcend the transactional elements of AI in school”.

Looking for a better future of work

It is evident change is inevitable in the future of work, and those who are set to enter the workplace in the coming years must be prepared to tackle it.

There is still work to be done to ensure young people get the skills they need, from providing teachers with digital skills to upskilling younger workers for whatever the future may bring.

Now more than ever, education institutions and business need to provide new generations with the skills to have rewarding, fulfilling careers.