Digital Skills for Economic Growth and Innovation

Andrew Wyckoff

Director for Science, Technology and Industry

Youth and Digital Skills Symposium

Ottawa, Canada 10 February 2014

High Performance of the ICT Sector

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Top 250 ICT firms, Index 2000-13

(*) Estimates based on quarterly financial reports. Source: OECD, Internet Economy database, compiled from annual reports, SEC filings and market financials.

The Internet economy is everywhere

Health & Aging Public Administration Commerce

Transportation Start ups

Science & Education

Manufacturing Energy

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Internet transforming jobs

ICT Impact: Drivers and drones

• Future for drivers?

• Mercedes: 2014 S 500 will drive itself in traffic if hand simply on wheel

• Google car: 500 000 km with no crashes

• Amazon: Testing drone delivery of packages over short distances

Resources are reallocated

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Economic growth and competitiveness is linked to ICTs

ICTs contribute significantly to GDP growth

OECD Productivity Database, November 2013

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ICT investment accounts for only 15% of total investment (GFCF), yet has a large impact on GDP. ICTs also impact multifactor productivity as a driver of productivity growth

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1995-2011

Labour input ICT capital Non-ICT capital Multifactor productivity

Decomposition of GDP growth Total economy, annual percentage point contribution

Before

Domestic market

Now Domestic market

International markets

International markets

ICT impact: Micromultinationals

Occupations are skewing towards ICTs

Job growth: ICT specialists

ICT employment, percentage share in total employment

Bright Outlook for IT Occupations (% total occupations by category)

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Arts, Audio/Video Technology and…

Government and Public Administration

Manufacturing

Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources

Education and Training

Human Service

Transportation, Distribution and Logistics

Law, Public Safety, Corrections and Security

Hospitality and Tourism

Architecture and Construction

Science, Technology, Engineering and…

Business, Management and Administration

Finance

Health Science

Marketing, Sales and Service

Information Technology

Source: O*NET, US occupations

Sectors with the most ICT occupations

0 5 10 15 20 25

Management of Companies and EnterprisesAgriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting

Real estate and rental and leasingMining

Wholesale tradeAdministrative & support & waste…

UtilitiesArts, entertainment, and recreation

Other services, except public administrationFinance and insurance

Transportation and warehousingRetail tradeInformation

Accommodation and food servicesConstruction

Professional, Scientific and Technical ServicesPublic administration

ManufacturingEducation services

Health care and social assistance

Source: O*NET, US occupations

Internet-connected workers

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Norway Korea Germany Slovenia Estonia SlovakRepublic

Poland Greece

2005 2011

Source: Eurostat, OECD

Persons employed using computers with access to the Internet (web)

Declines in some jobs, growth in others

• Job Growth:

– Software developers

– Data scientists

– Marketing research

– Network administrators

– Statisticians

– Engineers

• Job Declines:

– Booksellers

– Postal carriers

– Travel agents

– Stock brokers

– Telephone operators

– Professors?

– Taxi drivers?

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The new oil: scarcity of ICT skills as a barrier to growth

OECD PIAAC: Lack of adult ICT skills

• PIAAC data across economies reveal that between 7% and 27% of adults have no experience in using computers or lack the most elementary computer skills, such as the ability to use a mouse.

ICT skills demographics

Strong skills

• Young adults

• Tertiary levels of education

• Skilled occupations

Weak skills

• Older adults

• Less than an upper secondary level of education

• Semi-skilled occupations

Source: OECD, PIAAC

Informing Policy: what skills are needed and how do

we develop them?

Predicting the future is difficult

Popular Mechanics

1950 predictions for the year 2000

• Eat food made from sawdust

• Cook by solar heat

• Shop by picture phone

Complementary bundles / teaching to adapt

• Direct skills

– Computer proficiency

– Mobile proficiency

– Basic web page creation and design

– Other?

• Related skills

– Writing skills

– Video creation and editing

– Effective communication

– Critical thinking

– Basic business skills

– Other?

Engage youth with ICTs at work

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16-24 year-olds Prime-age working adults 25-54 year-olds 55-65 year-olds

Source: OECD, PIAAC

Internet use at work, by age group

Leverage ICT use at home

Navigation skills & digital reading

– Frequency of computer use at home, particularly for leisure activities improves navigation and digital reading

– Frequency of computer use at school does not appear to affect these skills

Source: OECD, PISA 2009

Integrate ICTs throughout education

• Should everyone learn to write code?

• Learning how to work with rapidly evolving technology. Learn to re-learn.

• Integrate ICTs throughout the

curriculum and avoid treating

them as a separate subject

Source: M. Mitchell Waldrop, “Online learning: Campus 2.0” Nature, 13 March 2013.

Moving Beyond the Classroom

Pair ICTs with sector-specific skills

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Develop a National ICT skills strategy

Two thirds of people surveyed lack the skills to succeed in technology-rich environments

29%

40%

25%

6% Very low skills oropted out of the test

Low skills

Medium skills

Solid skills

Source: OECD, PIAAC

Key points for skills strategy Develop / strengthen links between the

world of learning and the world of work;

Provide relevant training for workers;

Convince adults of benefits from better skills;

Provide easy-to-find information about adult education activities;

Recognise and certify skills proficiency.

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Thank you