May be about 250 years old, formal employment
in private enterprises is relatively a younger phenomenon. Following a slow
period of proto-industrialization, the first industrial revolution spans from
the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century. It witnessed
the emergence of mechanization, a process that replaced agriculture with
industry as the foundations of the economic structure of society. Mass
extraction of coal along with the invention of the steam engine created a new
type of energy that pushed forward all processes thanks to the development of
railroads and the acceleration of economic, human and material exchanges. Other
major inventions such as forging and new know-how in metal shaping gradually
drew up the blueprints for the first factories and cities as we know them
today. Industrialisation created formal employment.
Barring very few jobs requiring very lofty
proficiency and knowledge, most jobs have been created not through any need for
an exclusive domain-expertise but as a requirement for an amalgam of multiple skills.
Most of these jobs do not have any underlying founding discipline. These jobs
have tended to attract people who could not succeed in their field of preferred
proficiency by being too applied and/or too heterodox and/or simply not good.
This is the context that could possibly
explain the subsequent success of vocational schools and business schools.
A key reason could be that vocational and business
education has gradually served as a creator of “universal function expertise” (UFE)
and “universal function technology” (UFT). For example, internet are
technologies/innovations that have multiple applications and are scalable
(consider FaceBook or Amazon algorithms). Vocational and business education
imparted knowledge and skills which in part share these characteristics of UFE.
Vocational Schools kept improving in numerous
ways adding new materials to their curriculum and focussing on emerging
processes and tools. Business schools themselves kept improving drawing on
their disciplinary foundations of economics, sociology, psychology and
quantitative methods while increasingly aiming to adapt to business reality and
develop and improve new theories for their own purposes.
Things have actually been slightly more
nuanced than the mere focus of education on relevance and usefulness; but they are
however not going to be always so good. Vocational and business educators have
succeeded only when they have focussed on teaching, engagement, relevance and
impact; otherwise they have simply fallen by the wayside.
The World Development Report 2019, of which a draft has now been placed in
the public domain, is focussing on ‘The Changing Nature of Work’ and contains
some uncomfortable truths.
It is true
that in some advanced economies and middle-income countries manufacturing jobs
are being lost to automation. Workers involved in routine tasks that can be
“coded to machine language” are most vulnerable to replacement. However,
technology provides opportunities to create new jobs, increase productivity,
and deliver effective public services. Through innovation, technology generates
new sectors or tasks. The forces of automation and innovation will shape
employment in the future.
Innovations are changing the basis of competition in many markets. This is also changing the business-critical roles — jobs which
enable businesses to be differentiated for their competitors and deliver success while executing the business strategy. Businesses will be forced to
rethink the talent they will need to play these business-critical roles in the
future.
Investing in
human capital is the priority to make the most of this evolving economic
opportunity. For individuals already in jobs, the
implications are huge. If these changes are to take place in less than a
decade, the challenge for the people in jobs would be to remain relevant
through and after such changes.
Complex economic environment, rising social expectations and fluctuating
ideological shifts, technological advances and personal aspirations; and it’s
clear that individuals are hard-pressed to structure a coherent formula to
address all of this.
Factors such as immigration and
neo-protectionist policies by governments are going to contribute to the
confusion. And so would increasing supply and competition from numerous sources
including new national markets and alternative providers. The question whether
competition harms or helps expand the market remains an open one.
Inclusion of ethics, governance and
sustainability–related issues in the knowledge-skills-expertise triad will be
in focus. These issues would still follow rather than lead business strategy.
Dealing with social and economic sustainability requires a focus on ethics and
morality –this can come from philosophy. The influence of philosophy and
epistemology on business and vocational studies has so far been minimal. Antitrust
action requires incorporating law. Law and economics have found applications in
the corporate governance debate but here, too, managers mostly followed the
economists’ emphasis on shareholder value. Things are changing, but slowly.
Incorporating law into ones knowledge-skills-expertise can help. The same
applies to politics. The current power of big tech is much more than market
power — it has morphed into political power. It is important that power becomes
a major subject in managerial skills — hence politics and geo-politics as well.
Three types of skills are increasingly
important in labour markets: advanced cognitive skills (such as complex
problem-solving), socio-behavioural skills (like team work), and
skill-combinations that are predictive of adaptability (e.g., reasoning, self-efficacy).
An appreciation of liberal arts, philosophy, economics and sociology will help
people become adept at adaptability and help them succeed.
People with necessary skills for the World
during and past 4.0 waves would come from the existing workforce only. For the
talented from amongst those of the 3.0 era, the way forward for remaining
relevant is by becoming proficient at acclimatising their UFE to the transforming
changes.
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