Impacts on the Talent Gap Over the Next Decade

What keeps me awake at night? The talent gap. As a person passionate about the job market and with a deep interest in building cooperation between company needs and the talent landscape, I believe it’s a critical issue. It’s an issue that seems to be government driven, and I will explain why.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicts that global technology will transform 1.1 billion jobs in the next 10 years. I have lived and breathed the talent market for the last two decades, and when I read this predictive impact, I began to think of all the things that need to be done to prepare the labor force for tomorrow. As mentioned, governments are driving the impending talent gap boom, and in my opinion, we aren’t doing enough about it.  

Education System

The education system strategy can be a point of contention. A challenge has been posed to educational institutions questioning how they drive students to learn skills and talents they need to be prepared for the future given the advancement of tech. We cannot predict the rate of technology now or what is to come, but we should be focusing on training young people to cope better with stress, learn techniques that enable them to faster absorb information, and adopt decision making techniques based on calculated thought process. As a father of children in school ranging from first to ninth grade, I don’t see that these skills are a focus in schools.

Our education system needs as much innovation as our technology industry when it comes to thought process if we are ever to close the talent gap.  But who is driving this priority in the Department of Education and supporting education departments?   

Here lies the issue: We have a technology industry driven by either privatization competitiveness for commercial dominance, or by the need for government dominance for global defense, offense and exploration. We also have an education system that does not emulate the driving factors of the technology industry, which would create urgency, dependency and competitiveness. Our education system is a blanket offering that looks at a grading system that sits within its own ecosystem. We’re not looking out to foreign territories measuring their talent and seeing that our education incubator for our children is set to surpass them. And that’s assessing with a singular national talent gap view, which based on today’s global markets is also an outdated and archaic view.  

The education system is not dictated for the masses based on commercial need and that is where we are failing. We fail to see that the education system is a supply chain for our commercial markets, especially technology. When supply chains fail in any other business, logistical issues are typically the root cause. Yet, we see our education system and private markets as mutually exclusive.  

We call it the talent supply chain in the human resource industry, but even our sector only considers people a talent resource once they’ve completed their education. Imagine sending your employees to a training course and that course had nothing to do with their day-to-day work. Seems almost ridiculous, but it seems to me this is what our education system portrays through twelfth grade.

It is essential to learn the foundational courses such as math, science and languages, as well as technology; however, what I feel is missing from the education system is what I mentioned before – skills and techniques to help people deal with stress, decision making and problem solving. These skills can be adapted to any situation and discipline, and can be applied to any company to grow, add value and succeed.  

This is a Global Issue

We can’t look at individual markets alone. I look at the U.S., Europe and Asia mostly, but the reality is they are not exclusive from one another. They rely on each other for trade and labor, among other things. I am aware that the global demand and competition for talent is going to become increasingly more aggressive as the technology industry impacts more than one billion jobs globally throughout the next decade.   

At what point do we all begin to operate as one heartbeat on one planet that works in collaboration with one another to improve economic productivity and output? The global education system needs to recognize the next generation of challenges, like technology and other issues such as how to overcome carbon emission and safeguard our presence on this planet, and the possibility of moving to other planets. At what point do we change our education system to fit the needs of tomorrow’s market and society?  

Conclusion

More can be driven with the collaboration of enterprise and education. Leading companies, the likes of Google, Microsoft and Amazon, could work with schools to help educate and prepare the labor of tomorrow based on the forecasted needs and development they see in the technological evolution. 

We must be less civil servant driven and more free market driven in education. I suggest we focus on the core years, when children are at the peak of learning and development, to craft young humans with the best skills and abilities to cope in an ever-evolving technological landscape that is driven by them, for them.  

I can affirm that throughout the course of the rest of my career, I personally will look to play a part in shaping the way our children learn so that they are better prepared for the future, surely an infinitely more complex and challenging environment than the one I’ve experienced thus far. The talent supply chain is real, and it starts the moment humans begin learning, not from the moment they graduate.  

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Other Topics

Jobs & Unemployment