The World Economic Forum (WEF) has restated its commitment to ensuring the 2030 initiative goal to reskill, provide better education and work for one billion people.
The organisation announced on Tuesday that more than 350 million people are being reached with better skills, jobs, and education through commitments made as part of its reskilling revolution initiative, three years after launching at its annual meeting in Davos.
Working with more than 20 governments, 60 global chief executives, and a network of over 350 organisations, the reskilling revolution is preparing one billion people for tomorrow’s economy and society by 2030, WEF said.
Saadia Zahidi, managing director at World Economic Forum speaking at the ongoing annual meeting explained that the organisation has LinkedIn and Microsoft’s commitment to train and certify 10 million additional learners in essential tech roles.
The commitment by the tech giants will help 80 million others learn new skills for digital roles since the COVID-19 outbreak. Also, under the iamtheCODE’s pledge to train one million women and girls as coders across Africa and globally in seven years’ time.
Zahidi reiterated that the reskilling revolution is tackling the global skills gap through a wide range of innovative commitments.
“With 1.1 billion jobs likely to be radically transformed by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, supply chain shifts, and the energy transition, workers need support on reskilling and upskilling, while the younger generation needs future-ready education.
The reskilling revolution is bringing together government, business and educators to drive this transformation,” he said.
This, as a new report finds an unmet need for 76 million new jobs in green and social sectors alone by the time frame.
WEF revealed that as of 2023 about 310 million people are being reached through 110 commitments made by businesses and governments, representing innovative and best-in-class education and workforce skilling initiatives.
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Besides, 40 million people are being reached through a network of national skills and education accelerators in Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, Georgia, Greece, India, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, South Africa, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.
However, at the 2023 world’s foremost leaders’ annual meeting with the theme, “Cooperation in a Fragmented World”, Italy announced its intention to collaborate on establishing an education accelerator.
The meeting which coincides with the three-year anniversary of the initiative’s launch is convened to evaluate the impact and progress achieved as well as agree on the next steps for priority action.
Advancing the global education reform, the Education 4.0 Alliance, a multistakeholder group driving a more inclusive and innovative learning environment will be launching a new interactive education 4.0 taxonomy and unveiling 16 finalists selected as education lighthouses.
According to Jonas Prising, chairman/chief executive officer at ManpowerGroup “The reskilling revolution was timely when the Forum launched the initiative three years ago and it is now even more urgent.
“On the one hand, technology improves people’s lives and creates a more connected world; on the other, it contributes to growing polarization between those with the skills to take advantage of digitization and those without.
“As tech adoption continues at pace, increasing people’s employability and providing them with greater control of their prosperity and earning potential is critical to creating a future that is better for the many, not the few.”
Allen Blue, co-founder and vice-president of products at LinkedIn collaborating with the organisation helped the social media platform leverage the insights to create a better future for people.
“At LinkedIn, our analysis of real-time labour market trends allows us to unlock unique insights that can inform decisions to make workplaces fairer, more inclusive, and equitable. Through our collaboration with the World Economic Forum, we can leverage these insights to create a better future of work for everyone,” Blue said.
Hisayuki “Deko” Idekoba, president/chief executive officer at Recruit Holdings, the firm is committed to connecting people.
“Recruit is a growing technology company committed to connecting people to job opportunities around the world in a faster, simpler, and more human way.
“We look forward to contributing to the World Economic Forum’s Job Consortium and sharing meaningful labour market insights that help drive towards a world where all may prosper together,” Idekoba noted.
Meanwhile, leaders of the jobs consortium are using this week’s annual meeting to propel initiatives to create good jobs, enable transitions between these jobs, improve the quality of jobs and wages and generate better foresight on emerging jobs.
While technological shifts, geo-economic pressures, demographic changes, and the green transition are creating jobs and skills churn, there is also an opportunity for new job creation.
A new WEF analysis, in collaboration with Accenture, finds that an additional 76 million jobs in green and social sectors are needed by 2030 in 10 economies alone: Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, India, Japan, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
