By 2025, WEF estimates, time spent on work tasks will be evenly divided between humans and machines, and some 1.1 billion jobs will be transformed by technology, COVID-19 disruption, and the accelerating transition to greener operations.
The "Accelerating the reskilling revolution" panelists came from a wide range of perspectives, underscoring the complexity of the topic. It's not just about retraining global employees for the digital workplace, but ensuring that education opportunities reach those most in need and that countries investing in education find ways to capture the ROI and improve their own communities.
Digital learning has created new opportunities. "The overall education that's available now between traditional skills, online, and in-person, is making sure that more and more people have access to it, and that is phenomenal," said Salil Parekh, CEO and managing director, Infosys.
But marginalized communities around the world still lag behind, said Lady Mariéme Jamme. She is the founder and CEO of iamtheCODE, an African-led organization that teaches coding to women and girls via a digital platform across 70 countries. "I am extremely frustrated with the infrastructure, the content, and the connectivity for girls who are coming from marginalized communities all around the world, from Senegal to Mombasa, they don't have access," she said.
"We need to meaningfully give people access and invest in the last mile of education, so that girls like me can sit here in 2030, sharing their stories," she said.
Developing countries cope with the problem of "brain drain," when educated workers leave their home countries for more lucrative opportunities elsewhere, and lose the opportunity to strengthen their communities.
Najla Bouden, prime minister of Tunisia, said that her country ranks 8th in education overall according to the Global Innovation Index, and second in the percentage of graduates in STEM.
"We produce good knowledge, but unfortunately absorb little of it. We produce good doctors, engineers, and scientists, but this talent is leaving the country," Bouden said. "This is a net loss of the investment and moreover a big shortfall for the country's need to achieve prosperity for its people."
Robert Moritz, global chairman of PwC says that ESG goals need to address access, quality, as well as entrepreneurship and economic opportunities where educational programs can direct the talent. "Otherwise you'll have...where citizens in other countries [like] Tunisia are saying ok, I've got to move elsewhere, where's the opportunity going to be for me."