Читать книгу Internationalization and Global Markets - Juliette Milgram - Страница 15

Following the above discussion, job changes are more frequent than ever. In the space of a generation, the average European worker has gone from having a job for life to have more than ten in a career, multi-tasking, and zigzagging rather than following a linear trajectory. In other cases, the tasks contained within a job are being transformed. The 43% of adult employees in Europe report having recently experienced changes in the technologies they use at work, with 1 in 5 considering it likely that their skills will become outdated in the next five years.

Figure 4 shows the most sought after skills during last year. Notice that adaptation to change is the most valued. This data fits with the resilience skill so sought after in organizations. It is observed that educational institutions, universities, governments are not responding to new skills demanded by an increasingly rapidly evolving market, and where individual and value-focused learning is staggering in leaps and bounds.

Figure 4. Soft skills more important than ever

Source: Cedefop’s Skills-OVATE 2019

In a Europe where the domestic labor market is becoming more mobile and a shortage is taking place in the skills demanded to manage inter-national talent is complex, as we are competing with economies such as China or India in which its workforce collects the most demanded STEM skills on the planet. While, in the case of Europe, the lack of highly skilled tech professionals is already holding back Europe’s digitalization and, with it, its economic growth. Over 70% of European firms report that lack of skills is hampering their investment strategies, the 42 while 46% of firms report difficulties in filling vacancies due to skills shortages.

Yet, in 2019, 27% of the active EU workforce (employed and unemployed) have low digital skills, and 28% have basic digital skills, with some Member States home to as many as one in five workers with no digital skills[JCCN1].

The adoption of these technologies will also lead to greater automation of tasks and, therefore, some replacement of people with machines or robots in jobs, with the consequent impact on employment and wages (Acemoglu and Restrepo, 2017). According to the World Economic Forum (2018a), by 2022, tasks such as information and data processing could be performed by 62% by machines rather than by people, compared to 47% today. Administration tasks will be carried out by machines by 44%, up from 28% in 2018. The impact of automation on employment is obvious, but it is difficult to measure.

Nedelkoska and Quintini (2018) have estimated the percentage of jobs at high or significant risk of automation. This depends not on the sectoral structure of the different countries, but on the organization of the work or the type of tasks that are performed, in particular, if they are more manual or have greater added value. While the impact of automation involves clear challenges from the point of view of employment and training, it is also an opportunity to push companies to focus on higher value-added tasks and improve the training, knowledge, and skills of their workers. An even greater challenge in those companies and entrepreneurs exposed to internationalization. Internationalization has a major impact on the required profiles and competencies, not just referred to as a result of automation and the digital revolution.

The ways of working as we have indicated are becoming more global and require constant iteration with teams from other countries. This entails different needs not only at the language level but also with a multicultural mindset and sensitivity. On the other hand, the change in the needs of customers generates changes in the required professional profiles. Customer types are different especially when the company is heading to an interna-tional market either for diversification or for variations in the market. In other cases, what has varied is the way to relate to them in different cultural environments that require different tools and capabilities. Besides, managing the different levels of demand on the part of customers, who are more informed and have a higher level of sophistication, requires adapting to their expectations that change clearly according to geographical areas.

Older, lesser-educated, and lower-income individuals are least likely to have strong digital skills. In the context of polarizing labor markets, with falling demand for middle-skilled work and rising competition for lower-paid jobs, these people risk having even fewer opportunities to enter and remain in the labor market. And, with the rise of e-government, online shopping, banking, and smart mobility, lack of basic digital skills may lock individuals not only out of work but also out of society.

Figure 5 shows how the digital skills are unevenly distributed in Europe. A situation that has been highlighted during this 2020 in which the digitization of the population does not come from promoting government programs or subsidies, not even attitudes towards digitization. The acquisition of new skills is marked by many variables, among which the most impact they have are age, level of formal education and household incomes.

Figure 5. Europe’s digital skills are unevenly distributed

Source: Own elaboration through EU Open Data Portal (2020), https://data.europa.eu/euodp/en/home

The McKinsey Global Institute (2018) also provides evidence in the same vein and estimates that, by 2030, both in the United States and Western Europe there will be a reversal of demand for work related to manual capabilities (such as operation and repair equipment, technical or inspection and control tasks). And basic cognitive tasks (such as data and information processing, communication or basic computing). However, increased demand is expected in advanced cognitive abilities (such as statistics, critical thinking, or creativity), socio-emotional (such as interpersonal abilities, leadership, initiative, entrepreneurship, and adaptability) and (such as programming, data analysis, technological design, engineering or scientific research)

In this effort to understand and develop the capabilities that will be required in the future, companies, according to the “The Future of Jobs Report 2018” report (World Economic Forum, 2018b), point to the importance of collaborating with the education system, both at the local level international, and by experts. Thus, 52% of the companies surveyed showed their preference for having international academic institutions in the workforce transition effort to the new capabilities required.

New ways of working in an international and more globalized environment require different capabilities, with an emphasis on relationships. Internationally oriented companies tend to have flatter and more cross-cutting structures, which affect ways of working, which are incorporating agile methodologies, project work, and methods such as design thinking. These forms of work pose challenges as more versatile people are needed, with greater emphasis on relational, teamwork, communication, leadership, negotiation, and with a global vision of the company at the international level and not just focusing on the local environment.

The rapid evolution of the required skills requires an agile educational system capable of responding to the market. The evolution of the skills demanded in the market has not developed at the same speed as the adaptation of the education system to the new times, and this has led to a mismatch in the skills required for the job in most countries of OECD. This problem is particularly serious in some EU countries such as Spain, where this mismatch affects more than 33% of workers higher than in other countries due to over-qualification for certain jobs, and not under-qualification.

Figure 6 shows the EU skills level. In the case of Spain, it is observed as it is in the average of Europe and above countries around it such as France or Italy.

Figure 6. Graph EU force fares poorly on digital

Source: Own elaboration through EU Open Data Portal (2020), https://data.europa.eu/euodp/en/home

Europe urgently needs to upskill its workforce, concentrating on essential horizontal skills for the digital age, which include not just digital skills, but softer ones such as adaptability, entrepreneurship, and multidisciplinary. Multi-sector skilling partnerships and collaborations between education providers, governments, business, and trade unions can anticipate skills needs and help regions to develop those sectors where they have the greatest potential for competitive advantage.

In this context of permanent transition, life-long learning has become an economic imperative. Additionally, as emerging economies become destinations that are more attractive, in the growing internationalization in which we are immersed, and where borders are becoming more and more blurred because we have no physical boundaries. Additionally, it is actively seek out high-skilled professionals, the labor force in these countries will be able to command an ever-greater share of middle- and higher-paying jobs.

In this dynamic context that we leave, the big question is about how to be more productive in this integrated and changing environment.