• Become an SSTI Member

    As the most comprehensive resource available for those involved in technology-based economic development, SSTI offers the services that are needed to help build tech-based economies.  Learn more about membership...

  • Subscribe to the SSTI Weekly Digest

    Each week, the SSTI Weekly Digest delivers the latest breaking news and expert analysis of critical issues affecting the tech-based economic development community. Subscribe today!

Shifting nature of careers and skills

October 05, 2017

Creative, digital, design and engineering occupations all have bright outlooks, along with architectural and green occupations, according to a recent report from Nesta, a global innovation foundation. Nesta took into account five major trends in mapping out how employment is likely to change in the future, and the implications for skills.

Nesta used a comprehensive mixed-methods approach in The Future of Skills; Employment in 2030, including consideration of diverse and interacting sources of structural change, which are expected to impact future skills needs. In analyzing both the U.S. and United Kingdom, the foundation assembled detailed information about occupations, which were debated and discussed in workshops. That information was used to train a machine learning classifier to generate predictions for all occupations and estimate the skills that would most likely experience growth or decline.

The researchers found a strong emphasis on interpersonal skills, higher-order cognitive skills and systems skills in both the U.S. and U.K. In the U.S., they also confirmed an importance of higher-order cognitive skills such as originality, fluency of ideas and active learning. Interpersonal skills will be in demand and continue to grow in importance as organizations negotiate the cultural context in which globalization and the spread of digital technology are taking place, the report says. The researchers assert that instead of “being doomed by technology and other trends, we find that many occupations have bright or open-ended employment prospects.” However, they also caution, “History is a reminder that investments in skills must be at the centre of any long-term strategy for adjusting to structural change.”

workforce