Are you ready to land on planet AI?
We don’t have the necessary digital skills to make the full landing just yet. In fact, there’s a significant digital skills gap across Europe, ranging from basic to advanced digital skills.
According to a broad research conducted by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) in 2022 across EU+ countries, it’s been found that over half of adult employees need to further develop their digital skills to do their main job better.
The results indicate that 52% of adult employees across the EU+ need to develop their digital skills further to do their main job better. In Norway it is 51 %, in Germany it´s 41% and in Denmark only 36% of adult employees that require digital upskilling. However, the gap also applies to students choosing their field of study. This years´ figures released by the Norwegian government on higher education enrolments in Norway show that, while the number of IT students has risen year on year, IT related studies still only make up 5% of the total applications.
This is a significant concern, but it’s not just limited to Europe. It’s a global challenge that needs to be addressed on multiple levels by governments and organisations to raise awareness and build strategies to address these gaps.
While there’s a perception that new technologies such as AI will make jobs redundant, this is simply unfounded. In fact, only 4% of workers who had to upskill digitally reported that digital technology destroyed some of their tasks.
Instead, in future, all jobs will be affected by technology and complemented rather than replaced. It’s important to understand the digital revolution’s impact on our workplace and future career prospects and how to equip ourselves with the skills to work in a co-pilot model with technology.
What does the digital revolution mean for my workplace and my future career prospects (for those choosing their primary education)?
How will I equip myself with the skills to work alongside technology?
It has now become apparent to that every job will require some level of digital literacy, data literacy, and technical skills. So, what are those digital skills that we need to develop in the short term to benefit from the latest technologies?
The EU outlines the following areas as to what digital competency means and how it can be measured in the digital competence framework DIGCOMP 2.2. for citizens:
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We require a digital skills strategy for all types of organisations to keep up with the speed of technological change we are currently experiencing. At the same time, students choosing their field of study should consider incorporating data literacy into their studies to be better equipped when entering their job in a data-driven world.
It’s time to take action and significantly invest in developing our digital skills. What are your thoughts on this topic? What are some of the challenges you see in your environment? Feel free to reach out for a discussion and exchange on this topic.
Happy digital learning 🙂
Please find this article also on LinkedIn.
Norwegian Government Publication on University Admissions 2023
Safe our human skills!
The number of tasks completed by machines vs. humans will rise from 34% in 2022 to 43% in 2027 according to the study published in the Future of Jobs report 2023 by the World Economic Forum and for sure that percentage will increase even more over the next ten years.
More and more complex tasks will be automated by technology and this will give us the opportunity to re-position ourselves alongside technology (kindly said ;). The question is then what will be our role as humans with the further evolution of AI, big data and machine learning? What are the skills and attributes that makes us humans truly unique? How can we preserve humanness in a digital world?
As highlighted in my recent article “Houston, we have a problem” we have a significant digital skills gap in Europe and many workers and employees will require digital upskilling. But what about the non-digital skills? What are the skills and characteristics that we need to grow and develop?
My impression is that actually the top two skills listed above such as creativity and critical thinking are at risk of declining if not actively developed and nurtured in kindergartens, school, by ourselves and more broadly in organisations.
Talking to my nephew recently, who works as a kindergarten teacher, he said to me that kids at the ages of 5 and 6 find it increasingly difficult to engage in creative activities. Their creative references are often limited to reels they have seen on Tiktok or Instagram and they are not aware of what other ways of being creative are available to them – it requires active teaching and learning.
One the other hand I have noticed that we as adults may equally struggle when it comes to creative thinking. When recently coaching various leaders as part of a leadership development program there was one skill where everyone scored themselves low: creativity.
I firmly believe that creativity is not reserved to a small group of artistic folks out there – everyone can be and is creative, not just those that make beautiful drawings. It can be a powerful muscle if trained regularly.
Equally critical thinking has become a super important skill-set, particularly in a world were we need to be able to identify false from correct information and make calculated decisions.
So what are some of the things that we can all do more regularly so that we can preserve the special human skills which machines for many years to come will not be able to perform?
I would recommend learning or refreshing your knowledge around these methods – there are a lot of great learning courses on creativity and critical thinking available on Linkedin Learning, Coursera etc which will help you use these techniques more regularly
For me personally I will commit to remind myself every day: take my time to reflect before I decide, say or act and use either creative or critical thinking approaches to get a broader perspective before making a critical decision.
What are some of your perceptions and experiences on this topic? Do you find it difficult to make time for creativity or using critical thinking? Feel free to share or reach out to me for a chat.
Read on LinkedIn
We are currently seeing a large amount of extremely complex challenges affecting us and requiring us to change and adapt significantly as humans. Among these are environmental emergencies and catastrophes as well as transformative changes brought about by artificial intelligence and technology.
I, like many I know, feel overwhelmed and I realize that we cannot respond to these complexities just by thinking in a new way, they require us to actually DO things differently as individuals and organizations. Knowledge alone does not help anymore.
So what are the behaviours we as individuals have to change to actually BE more sustainable and become “future-ready humans, powered by AI”?
When reflecting on this question during my summer break my friend Dr. Holger Dierssen recommended to me the “Inner Development Goals” (IDG) framework as a fantastic starting point to understand what the human qualities are that we need to focus on to evolve.
The IDGs offer a transformative framework with 5 dimensions and 23 skills for sustainable development. It’s an open-source, free field-kit, beneficial for all, especially leaders, addressing the UN´s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), accelerating progress towards a prosperous future for humanity.
Innerdevelopment Goals Framework
They are summarised in the picture above and represent a great basis for reflection on where we need to start. The five simple categories are: Being, Thinking, Relating, Collaborating and Acting and if you read the entire IDG report they provide you with also questions and exercises to start working on these respective areas in their IDG toolkit.
As a life-long learner I ask myself how could we best LEARN to adapt these behaviours and change the way we do things? In my 20 years’ experience in corporate learning, I’ve come to realize that most training courses fall short of creating lasting transformation.
Too often have I attended courses that proved to be nothing more than a wasted investment, as I failed to apply the learnings in practice.
The current complexities demand more than just regurgitating information; they require us to actively engage and adapt. The key to addressing these issues lies in a paradigm shift in the way we learn. Linear, pre-defined content and one-time training events no longer suffice in a world where adaptability and resilience are paramount. We need a new way of learning to better suit the demands current times.
By “new learning,” I refer to an approach that breaks free from the confines of traditional training. It needs to be dynamic, continuous, and centred on reflection, experimentation, and peer-driven collaboration. We must move away from the conventional trainer-student dynamic and embrace a collective learning experience. After all, no single individual possesses all the answers, but together, we can unlock the potential for innovative solutions.
Over the past few weeks I have developed a bespoke learning model (shown below), which is based on Kolb´s learning cycle as well as my practical experience with Design Thinking, that I think could help in establishing a learning paradigm. In this model the trainer is “just” the process facilitator, and the group becomes responsible for the outcomes by trying out topics, reflecting, building ideas and solutions jointly and testing these in their environments to get feedback.
Get inspired from an expert
(video or live)
Try it hands-on and experiment
Reflect on how it went with your peers
Brainstorm on potential scenarios for your context
Design your specific prototype or enhanced process
Try it out in your team and organization
Share your feedback with your peers & get input
Copyright: Innov8 Consulting Learning Model
In such a peer-driven learning environment, we draw from the collective wisdom and experiences of our peers. Through open dialogue and constructive feedback, we can nurture a culture of collaboration, enabling us to tackle challenges more effectively. This approach empowers us to experiment fearlessly and learn from our failures, ultimately leading to more sustainable and beneficial outcomes.
I will continue to evolve this model and build learning experiences particularly for leaders on this basis BUT: I would be very happy to hear from you, what your thoughts are and if you would like to collaborate around the IDGs.
Feel free to reach out for an informal chat or drop me a note here. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
See this article also on LinkedIn.
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