The growing interest in identifying human skill sets that will prepare us for the projected exponential growth in technological advancement has motivated stakeholders across the business, policy, research, and education spheres to develop taxonomies for education and work skills needed in the future. These are great starting points for a dialogue about the transitions ahead.
The digitization of the economy, as well as of the whole of society, is changing the way we work, learn, and lead our everyday lives. Digital and green transformation, along with market globalization and demographic change, dominate a profound transformation that will result in a major shift of the labor market globally and, more critically, in Africa. This paradigm shift represents a critical challenge for policymakers, regulators, employers, workers, investors and public authorities, and the challenges need to be fully understood and embraced to identify the most appropriate policy options to transform them into opportunities for all.
However, to successfully implement structural and content changes to our formal and informal educational systems, we need to be even more specific about what skills to focus on, why these skills are needed, whom these skills will benefit, and how to enhance these skills efficiently at a global and local level. This requires an approach that is more holistic, inclusive, and detailed than the industry currently demands. This session aims to lay the ground for a more diverse and proactive discourse about science capacity building for the future, with the hope of assembling stakeholders and voices from across the globe to join in on this collaborative effort.
Education, skills, upskilling, and reskilling are critical to the SDG Agenda. Human capital development should be at the core of the global challenges response and needs to be part of an enabling policy and regulatory environment for all nations. This session will produce recommendations and address how skills can be made a critical part of the Summit of the Future, which the United Nations will host in September 2024.
This event is part of the Science Summit at United Nations General Assembly (UNGA78)