Future-Proofing Workforce Development Programs Perspectives from a Skills to Succeed Insight to Action Event

Contents

About Accenture Skills to Succeed 3

I. How is the Nature of Work Changing? What are the skills that job

seekers will need in the future to access job/business opportunities? 5

Key Research Theme #1: Augmentation, not Automation 5

Implications for Skilling Professionals 7

Building the baseline of skills 7

Understanding the local context 7

Understanding the employer perspective 8

Key Research Theme #2: Digital Literacy 9

Implications for Skilling Professionals 10

Unlocking the value of coaching 10

Soft Skills – Helping individuals attain and retain jobs 11

Skilling for organizational and entrepreneurial employment 11

Understanding the employer perspective 12

II. What effect will the changes to the way work is organized have on this? 13

Key Research Theme: Flexible employment models

are gaining popularity and increasing traction 13

Implications for Skilling Professionals 14

The geographic spread of ‘white collar jobs’ 14

Tapping into new markets 14

Understanding the employer perspective 16

Conclusion 17

3

What effect will the changes have?

The digital transformation is presenting opportunity and challenge for organizations – What new jobs will be created? What new skills will be needed? How will work be organized?

As skilling practitioners work to equip beneficiaries with the right skills that are most relevant in the changing the business landscape and helping them secure meaningful employment, the topic of the “Workforce of the Future” is of high criticality.

In July 2015, Accenture held an interactive Insight to Action virtual event

with over 200 skilling professionals from the Skills to Succeed practitioner

network. In this session, we shared Accenture’s latest research and reflections

on the Workforce of the Future, and explored what this means for skilling

professionals. We’ve captured the themes and ideas from the webinar in this

perspectives paper.

We hope that this paper is useful for practitioners seeking to upskill job seekers

and entrepreneurs, and that it helps practitioners understand, anticipate, and

align to the workforce of the future.

About Skills to Succeed

Having the right skills to open doors to meaningful, lasting

employment or business ownership is critical. Accenture launched

Skills to Succeed in 2009 to address this need and to advance

employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in markets around the

world. By mobilizing our people, partners, clients and others, we strive

to make a measurable and sustainable difference in the economic

vitality and resilience of individuals, families and communities.

By the end of fiscal 2020, together with our strategic partners, we will

pursue the following targets:

Demand-Led Skilling: Equip more than three million people with the

skills to get a job or build a business.

Employment and Entrepreneurship Outcomes: Increase our focus on

the successful transition from skill-building programs to sustainable

jobs and businesses and improve our collective ability to measure and

report on these outcomes.

Collaboration for Systemic Change: Bring together organizations

across sectors to create large-scale, lasting solutions aimed at closing

global employment gaps.

4

What effect will the changes have?

Event Panelists

Nate Boaz is Accenture’s Managing

Director of Talent Strategy. Nate

is a leading global thinker in the

Workforce Development space, and is

focused on developing the innovative

strategies Accenture needs to acquire

and enable top talent to drive growth.

Yaarit Silverstone is the Managing

Director responsible for Accenture’s

Global Talent Practice. Yaarit has over

30 years of experience working with

clients designing, implementing and

sustaining human capital strategy and

talent management solutions, as well

as leadership development programs.

John Trew oversees Plan International’s

youth employment initiatives –

specifically technical and vocational

education and training (TVET)

initiatives – across Asia. With nearly

20 years of experience working in the

field of labor and employment, John

has spent the greater part of his career

developing solutions for decent work

for those outside the labor market.

Jamie McAuliffe is the President & CEO

of Education For Employment (EFE),

an organization working to create

economic opportunity for unemployed

youth in the Middle East and North

Africa (MENA) by providing demand-

driven professional and technical

training. He has over 20 years of

experience in leadership roles in both

the non-profit and business sectors.

5

I. How is the Nature of Work Changing? What are the skills that job seekers will need in the future to access job/business opportunities?

Key Research Theme #1: Augmentation, not Automation

“Augmentation”, not “automation” is having a drastic impact on the job market. People talk

about technology displacing human labor but it’s not a 1-to-1 dynamic. There will be jobs that

become more heavily reliant on automation, and there will be jobs that may be supplemented by

automation, but critically rely on human intelligence and behavior. For example, we can expect

to see developments such as robots that can be brought into a building on fire to quickly analyze

how safe it is for firefighters to remain inside while they rescue trapped victims.

As skilling organizations, we need to think about the new jobs that are being created due to

these new technologies (e.g., data engineers). We also need to think about jobs that will ‘never’

go away because they significantly rely on the human element.

By understanding and anticipating the movement in both of these areas, skilling practitioners will be

better enabled to establish skilling programs that help prepare individuals to work successfully within

this evolving dynamic. “Change won’t just be about machines replacing human work but rather

about machines interacting with humans, learning from them, and enhancing their work.”

The ideal model which we are striving towards is that we can use the capability of automation

(analytics, algorithms, robotics) to make the jobs of humans more effective, and for many,

more interesting. We need humans for those skills that are uniquely human: ideation, social

intelligence, communication, experimentation, creating meaning from analytics, complex

decision making, and other functions relying on relationships and trust. The goal and challenge

is to create an inclusive labor market, in which people from all demographics and geographies

can advance into these more advanced roles.

Workforce of the Future: Humanizing Work Through DigitalColin Sloman & Robert J. Thomas, Accenture Strategy

Digital is about cold efficiency and doing away with the human touch. Right? Wrong. Digital is making the work experience—and the workforce— more democratic, more networked, more human.

In Workforce of the Future, Sloman & Thomas explore how digital is precisely what will make work radically more human: more tailored to individual strengths, more flexible and portable, more collaborative and more meaningful to employees throughout the organization.

“The Interaction Between Technology and Humans”Yaarit Silverstone

6

Implications for Skilling Professionals Building the baseline of skills

A somewhat less optimistic angle of this is that as we move towards this model of automation

and augmentation, “there could be groups of people who get left behind because they don’t

have the baseline of technical and soft skills that allow them to build these more advanced

skills”. When people are left out of participating in this growing economic activity, the gap

between the developed and developing world widens.

For some skilling organizations that focus on the most marginalized individuals, those left

out of traditional labor markets, we need to reconsider the baseline, and what we might be

potentially assuming is part of the baseline set of skills. Basic life skills (e.g., communication

skills, time management, and risk assessment) can be a significant part successful employment.

To bridge the gap and bring the individuals up to the level of success we are aiming for, skilling

organizations must help establish these baseline skills, from which more advanced skills can be

built upon (e.g., digital literacy, problem solving).

Where the baseline set of core skills exists, it can be possible to employ the leapfrogging

theory of sustainable development to more rapidly help developing countries advance. In

the leapfrogging theory of sustainable development, we seek to develop technologies and

programs that enable developing economies to skip less efficient methods of work (e.g.,

particular technologies) and move directly to more advanced onesi. Plan International is

initiating a new program to build digital skills in parts of Africa, whereby they are using the

ideas of leapfrogging development to help developing economies build the necessary skills

that are required for success in the 21st century of work.

Understanding the local context

As skilling professionals developing programs in different geographies, we also need to think

about how the nature of work will change specifically in the economies and geographies we work

in, and build out our skilling programs within the context of these factors. We can consider this

local context by looking at economic and political indicators in geographies – Where are global

financial institutions and local governments investing? Where is the Research & Development?

How does it vary by sector? Which sectors generate significant job growth – particularly at

the entry level? What is the role of small and medium-sized firms? How might geopolitical

considerations influence the market for goods and services produced in the local context? The

key objective and challenge here for skilling practitioners is to anticipate how the demand for

skills is changing, so they can help individuals get the right skills to get a job and keep a job.

To continue understanding these evolving labor market dynamics, a mix of long, medium and

near-term market assessments is most helpful. To focus and tailor training programs that lead

directly to a job, ‘rapid market assessments’ are needed and need to be on a 12-18 month cycle

to mine the demand. To invest in developing curriculum, the typical 3-5+ year labor market

studies are necessary in parallel.

There could be groups of people who get left behind because they don’t have the baseline of technical and soft skills that allow them to build these more advanced skills.

“

”

7

Understanding the employer perspective

Another key role of skilling organizations is to understand and balance expectations between

employers and beneficiaries. It is crucial that skilling organizations work with employers to

understand what the needs in the market are. What we see in the skilling market is that it

can be difficult to align employers’ baseline qualifications with those of the individuals willing

to take the jobs. For example, youth in some developing countries who speak well enough to

work in a call center often feel such work is not appropriate for their social and educational

background. Hence, program adaptation is not only necessary on the demand (employer)

side, it’s important on the supply (youth) side as well. Education for Employment is adapting

their beneficiary sourcing practices to source in such a way that there is a better match of

expectations (jobs and interest), and at the same time to help youth develop appropriate

expectations based on their education and context. Doing more of this investigation to

understand expectations can help skilling organizations develop mutually successful programs.

Insight ...“Augmentation”, not “automation” is having a drastic impact on the job market

... To Action (for Skilling Practitioners):• Help individuals build the baseline skills required to achieve higher order skills

that will enable them to participate in the digital economy

• Assess and understand the local context, to keep pace and stay relevant with the changing needs of the workforce

• Strive to balance expectations between employers and beneficiaries of skilling development and employment opportunities, to help set up for mutual success and satisfaction

8

Key Research Theme #2: Digital Literacy

The movement in the nature of work is creating demand for a different set of skills than in the

past. “Digital literacy is becoming increasingly important as the prevalence and role of automation

grows.” To enable the power of this automation in the digital age, employers will continue to

require the human skills that enable the power of digital to be identified and captured.

Digital natives with the ability to make sense of data will be particularly valuable employees as

more businesses and economic activity transitions from the traditional physical marketplace to

the online one. Analytics is a huge opportunity area, not only being able to understand analytics,

but being able to drive the direction of analytics and the decision making coming out of it.

One direction we’ll see this go in is for humans and robots to collaborate to solve problems.

For example, in the oil & gas industry, wells will initiative and participate in conversations on

Chatter about potential problems & the right people will be pulled in to interpret and act on

this info.

The evolution of the need for skills such as data-based decision making puts an ever-increasing

demand on organizations to increase “time to competency” and require employees to develop

just-in-time skills. Today, 79% of organizations in a recent survey already said that their

organization uses just-in-time learning/social learning. Employing this just-in-time skilling

method can help develop capabilities such as digital literacy in new parts of the organization

where digital business is emerging.

Spotlight on Data-Based Decision Making• Analytics/data-based decision making in real-time will be an increasingly

more important skill than personal experience

• There will be an increasing need for people to work on providing the right data to the right people at the right time in an easily digestible format to turn that data into insights

• Organizations will be seeking people at all levels who can [use leadership skills and an experimental mindset to] turn data-based information into real decision making, as decision making expands to the edges of the organization: People’s value-add will largely be about judgement rather than knowledge creation (which will be left to data & algorithms)

Digital literacy is becoming increasingly important as the prevalence and role of automation grows.

“”

9

Implications for Skilling Professionals Unlocking the value of coaching

Just as the skill requirements are evolving, we may also need to evolve our approach to

building those skills. Coaching can play a critical role. Coaches need to understand the

changing context of skills that are required, since without understanding this, they could be

part of a problem that is accentuating the skill gap. Coaching and skilling needs are often

addressed in a reactive manner – identifying issues and mixed efficiencies, followed by

developing programs to address. We need to be more proactive in this, and build up coaches

and practitioners so they can be key drivers of change and champions of shaping the needed

skills, as the need is ramping up.

Looking at this from a slightly different angle, we see that in many societies and economies,

the skills gap begins to establish within the school system. To avoid this, we need teachers

and coaches to stay connected within the world of work. “The goal here is to have business

thinkers and leaders in the school system, and teachers connected into the business world.”

In a progressive world, can we have businesses ‘adopt a teacher’, or a classroom do a fieldtrip

to the company? The situation we want to avoid is having young people come out of school

without ever having been exposed to the world of work, and teachers leading classrooms when

they have never been exposed to the private sector.

Diffusing the expertise of the ‘Digital Native’Let’s also consider our mindset around mentoring, and upmentoring. Learning does not always have to be from the older person to the younger, the senior to the junior. Flipping the idea of mentoring to have the junior mentor the senior can present an opportunity to infuse technical skills and expertise from the ‘digital native’ generation into older generations. Organizations can also get creative about the channels and methods within which mentoring takes place. How can we use digital tools and peer networks to make mentoring more enticing and impactful?

The goal here is to have business thinkers and leaders in the school system, and teachers connected into the business world.

“”

“Taking a Reactionary Approach to the World of Work”John Trew

10

Soft Skills – Helping individuals attain and retain jobs

While we recognize the importance of digital literacy and other hard skills, we cannot

underestimate the importance of soft skills in a labor market that prizes adaptability, leadership

proficiency, and communication skills (among other soft skills). “It’s kind of a saying around here

that traditionally employers have hired for hard skills, technical skills, but almost everybody

is fired for soft skills.” Some might apply the 80/20 rule and say that employers are assessing

employees 80% on their soft skills, and 20% on their hard skills – or even lower than that and

planning to build up these hard skills in-house. As such, skilling organizations need to be mindful

of the degree to which they are focusing on developing hard skills vs. soft skills.

Skilling for organizational and entrepreneurial employment

Digital literacy skills can also be particularly important in developing markets where there is

a growing emphasis on entrepreneurship. Many developing economies face skill and talent

gaps in certain countries and industries, but an even bigger problem can often simply be job

creation. In these economies, entrepreneurship becomes increasingly attractive as it presents

individuals with opportunities to bolster their own job opportunities. Skilling organizations can

add value here by creating skilling programs that provide the base of skills needed to go into

the formal sector, but that can also be transferable into a means of self-employment or joining

a start-up. Advantageously, we are seeing that entrepreneurial skills are similar to the skills

that we have discussed as being most relevant to enabling employment success in the digital

age and workforce of the future (e.g., leadership, communication, data-based decision making,

risk assessment. While recognizing the many other contextual factors needed by entrepreneurs

to be successful (e.g., access to markets and financing), skilling organizations can develop

skilling programs that prepare individuals to enter the organizational or entrepreneurial working

landscape. With these skills, even those entrepreneurs who would typically start out of necessity

in rural areas can bring in the efficiency/innovation typically found in more urban populations.

It’s kind of a saying around here that traditionally employers have hired for hard skills, technical skills, but almost everybody is fired for soft skills.

“”

“The Importance of Soft Skills”Jamie McAuliffe

11

Understanding the employer perspective

In light of the rapidly changing nature of work and perishability of skills, one of the key

skills employers seek is learning agility – the ability of individuals to continue to reinvent

themselves and take on new skills. Interestingly, we are seeing a big resurgence in onshoring of

application services and application outsourcing in Europe for example. As new demographics

(e.g., women, minority groups, veterans) enter the workforce and gravitate to these labor

markets, we are challenging old assumptions that a four year computer science degree is

needed to do this type of work. We are already seeing employers thinking progressively about

how to partner with skilling organizations to use the learning environment as an assessment

mechanism for finding talent.

Consider This: A New and Collaborative Approach to Skilling and HiringSome employers are seeking to collaborate with skilling organizations to develop and assess an individual’s learning agility. If employers see the individual emerge as someone with learning agility, they may be more inclined to hire them.

Insight … Digital literacy is becoming increasingly important as the prevalence and role of automation grows

…to Action (for Skilling Practitioners)• Adopt a just-in time approaching to skilling to keep programs relevant in a

changing labor landscape

• Offer skilling programs that develop soft skills (e.g., leadership, communication, learning agility)

• Build skilling programs that prepare individuals with the skills to enter the formal workforce, but that can also be transferable into a means of self-employment “Challenging Degree Requirements”

Nate Boaz

12

II. What effect will the changes to the way work is organized have on this?Key Research Theme: Flexible employment models are gaining popularity and increasing traction

We are seeing two big trends in the flexibility of employment models. From an organizational

standpoint, organizations are becoming less about the four walls around them and more about

the adaptability of the networks and systems within them. From an employee standpoint, we

are seeing that “people want to work on what they want, when they want, from where they

want”. The combination of these factors opens many doors of possibility: organizations can

explore new ways to bring in talent; talent that is working from anywhere in the world at

any time of day. 82% of organizations in a recent survey already reported using an "extended

workforce" (beyond the walls of their organization) to fill skill gapsii.

Our research suggests that the workforce of the future won’t primarily be comprised of big

companies – rather, job creation will largely come from small businesses and their scaling up

into medium sized businesses. Accenture 2015 College study (focused on US/UK) showed that

only 15% of recent grads want to work for big companiesiii. We anticipate to see evolution

in the way big companies work with smaller businesses and contractors. By 2025, 45% of

workers are predicted to work on an individual contractor basis and many of them will likely

have multiple jobsiv.

Within organizations, we are seeing fewer jobs, and more roles. What this means for the

individuals is that people who are capable of recreating themselves and recreating their

capabilities are the ones who will be most successful. We are also seeing a shift from

functional roles/static job descriptions for employees to rallying around common goals

in collaborative teams (i.e. work will become more project based, with team structures being

more fluid). Accenture research shows that 44 percent of high-growth companies now use

temporary teams, and 86 percent leverage the power of collaboration across employees to

achieve high performancev.

People want to work on what they want, when they want, from where they want.“ ”

13

Implications for Skilling Professionals

What does this mean for skilling professionals? We need to be thinking about using this

flexibility to stretch our traditional view of a labor market to enable opportunities for all parts

of the population – e.g., rural workers, older workers, new digital natives, workers with talent

and capabilities but without formal credentials, etc.

The geographic spread of ‘white collar jobs’

As we see models of employment become more flexible and remotely available, we can expect

to see an increase in ‘white collar jobs’ being available in rural locations or to populations

where previously there was only access to ‘blue collar’ or agricultural jobs. This is ideal as it

can help individuals in the informal sector move into the formal sector. Entrepreneurship also

greatly enables this movement. If we can empower people with the transferable skills and

flexibility that allow them to move between formal and informal work or self-work, we enable

people to take advantage of more of these opportunities. Crucially, as new pools of employees

shift between the formal and informal labor markets, skilling professionals need to be mindful

of the growing importance of labor rights awareness and skills training in areas such as

financial and project planning and self-marketing.

Tapping into new markets

This new world of digital capability and flexible employment models is great for the highly

educated part of the economy, but we are potentially leaving a huge amount of people behind

if we don’t think beyond that. There are significant talent-heavy markets that we have yet

to tap, and we need to devise effective strategies for doing so. Skilling professionals need to

help get the economies outside of this market ‘digitally enabled’, so these individuals can also

participate in this expanding world of flexible and remote employment, and employers can tap

into these skills markets. A more liquid workforce with no borders or boundaries could unlock

vast opportunities for employment, and generate significant value for employers. For example,

EFE is working in places like Gaza and the West Bank (where there are physical barriers to

getting people to work) to connect Palestinian youth with opportunities in other markets

through E-work platforms, such as contracting companies that are outsourcing their work.

To enable this, skilling organizations can help develop skill sets that enable someone to

succeed in online world of work – new set of skills that include “self-marketing,” creating

contracts, remote negotiation, self-guided work, knowledge of their legal rights, etc.

Experimenting with and building up programs such as this can help younger populations and

developing economies participate more widely in the global economy, which helps reduce the

gap between the very wealthy and the poor.

Tapping into new markets and uncover opportunity through entrepreneurship and flexible

employment models (e.g., contract work), can trigger significant societal shifts. Notable: what is

the social safety net? If more people are moving to contract or self-work, economies may look

to the government to provide insurance and security, which might otherwise be supplemented

by large organizations (in traditional employment models). Without access to these social safety

nets, moving between models of employment becomes much more difficult and riskier.

14

Understanding the employer perspective

Whether we are specifically thinking of digital literacy, technical, or other specific skills,

an interesting dynamic evolving in today’s workplace as models get more flexible, is the

perishability of skills. As Andy McAfee discusses in The Second Machine Age, individuals

used to have one set of skills that would last a decade. Now, you need to have 3-4 sets of

skills within one decade. The shelf life of skills is going down; but complimentarily, the speed

to acquire is going up. Skilling organizations can help by developing programs that help

individuals develop their learning agility to succeed in this model.

Insight ...Flexible employment models are gaining popularity and increasing more traction: People want to work on what they want, when they want, from where they want

... To Action (for Skilling Practitioners):• Think about how skilling programs are preparing individuals for ‘white collar’

vs. ‘blue collar’ jobs – can we prepare individuals with the skills for both?

• Employ flexible employment models (e.g., contract and remote working) to connect populations in untapped skills markets to job opportunities

• Help individuals develop learning agility, so they are better prepared for a career that evolves through multiple skillsets

15

Conclusion

The evolving nature of the workforce presents great opportunity for skilling/workforce development organizations. By increasing our understanding of the evolving workforce of the future, skilling organizations can be better positioned to establish high value and sustainable skilling programs. They can future proof their programs to meet the needs of employers and the economies in which their beneficiaries operate. They can turn this insight to action.

Copyright © 2015 Accenture All rights reserved.

Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture.

Referencesi Leapfrog 101

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/001743.html

ii Workforce of the Future: Humanizing the World through Digital Colin Sloman and Robert J. Thomas https://www.accenture.com/sk-en/insight-workforce-future-humanizing-work-digital.aspx https://www.accenture.com/us-en/~/media/Accenture/Conversion-Assets/DotCom/Documents/Global/PDF/Dualpub_12/Accenture-New-Workforce-Future-Humanizing-Work-Digital-Infographic.pdf

iii Insights from the Accenture Strategy 2015 U.S. College Graduate Employment Study https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insight-2015-accenture-college-graduate-employment-research.aspx

iv Accenture, 2015

v Accenture research on business agility, 2014 https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insight-traits-truly-agile-businesses.aspx

Recommended sourcesSkills to Succeed: July 23 Webinar Recording: Future Proofing Workforce Development Programs https://mp162522.cdn.mediaplatform.com/162522/wc/4000/8535/28402/50397/Lobby/default.htm

The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee http://www.amazon.ca/The-Second-Machine-Age-Technologies/dp/1491544821

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