‘…up-skilling is key to stimulating the economic recovery from covid-19 and creating more inclusive and sustainable economies.’
A report from the World Economic Forum has concluded that ‘accelerated investment in up-skilling and re-skilling workers,’ could add at $6.5 trillion to global GDP as well as creating 5.3 million new jobs by 2030. The report was released on the first day the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda Meeting.
The report; Upskilling for Shared Prosperity which was written in collaboration with PwC, finds that accelerated skills enhancement would ensure that people have the experience and proficiency needed for the jobs that will be created by the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’. This would boost global productivity by 3%, on average, by 2030. The report’s authors say that the newly created jobs will be those that are complemented and augmented, rather than replaced, by technology.
This latest research supports the work of the Re-skilling Revolution Platform which was launched at the January 2020 World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The Re-skilling revolution sets out to provide better education, skills and work to one billion people by 2030. In its first year, despite the pandemic and economic downturn, the platform’s initiatives are estimated to have benefited more than 50 million people around the world.
While the platform’s focus in 2020 was on setting up systems for rapid re-skilling and up-skilling, the initiative will expand its work in education, job creating investments and work standards.
Commenting as the new report was released, Bob Moritz, Global Chairman, PwC said ‘Even before covid-19, the rise of automation and digitisation was transforming global job markets, resulting in the very urgent need for large-scale up-skilling and re-skilling… As we highlight in our new insight report with the [World Economic] Forum, up-skilling is key to stimulating the economic recovery from covid-19 and creating more inclusive and sustainable economies. To make this happen, great public-private collaboration will be key…’
The 2021 World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda, which began on 25 January, has two sessions on Skilling the Global Workforce taking place on Thursday 28 January at 9:15 and 16:15 Central European Time.
Visit Blog