Future Skills: Six Approaches to Close the Skill Gap

Abstract

According to estimates, in fi ve years there will be a shortage of 700,000 people whopossess technological skills such as complex data analysis or web developmentin Germany. There is also predicted to be a skills gap of 2.4 million employees withthe necessary cross-disciplinary skills. These are alarming fi gures consideringhow important technological and cross-disciplinary skills are in preparing for arapidly changing workplace and to ensure continued participation in society.This paper analyzes over 30 current initiatives in Germany dealing with futureskills. The analysis reveals challenges in the education system that prevent thefuture skills gap from being closed—there is a lack of transparency in futureskills training, future skills content is lacking in schools and universities, andthere is no systematic further training of future skills at the workplace.Examples from other countries such as Estonia, Finland, China and Singapore,and indeed from Germany, offer inspiration for six concrete approaches tobridge the looming future skills gap. To create transparency for example, afuture skills online platform could be established with an integrated futureskills tracker that reveals what skills users lack and where they can fi ndtraining; schools and universities could integrate future skills teaching conceptsand materials in their lessons; and businesses could be offered fi nancialincentives to introduce more future skills training in their companies.Digitization and automation are bringing about vastly changing requirements at the workplace, andwill also be increasingly important for continued participation in society. Future skills1 are needednow—skills that to some extent already exist today like agile working and digital interaction, and alsoskills that are only just emerging like blockchain technology development, all of which will becomeconsiderably more important tomorrow. As it currently stands, 25 percent of today’s workforce willeither need to fi nd new professional activities by 2020 or signifi cantly broaden their technological skillsas well as their digital citizenship and classic skills—i.e., their cross-disciplinary skills2. These skillsinclude programming, agile working, and adaptability. Even elementary school students need to getready for the change, since by 2030, 85 percent of them will work in professions that do not yet exist3.Previous papers on future skills have identifi ed 18 future skills, and shown that the future skills gap—i.e.,the number of underqualifi ed workers—will rise to 700,000 for technological skills in the next fi veyears, and to as much as 2.4 million for cross-disciplinary skills. This discussion paper proposesmethods that Germany can implement to close the future skills gap as quickly and in as targeted away as possible. The various papers on future skill have been developed with the Stifterverband für dieDeutsche Wissenschaft, a German non-governmental organization seeking to address challenges inhigher education, science and research. Founded in 1920, major donors include most major Germancorporations, but also > 2,000 medium-sized companies.