Everywhere we see data on the professions that are going to be created and that we do not yet know about, on the jobs that are going to be lost... we are looking at a chaotic and largely hopeless future.
There is a feeling in the air that artificial intelligence and robots are going to put us out of work, and that we will not be able to do anything about it.
We think that a machine can replace us. It can certainly do so in manual and repetitive jobs, but in the rest it is not a threat, but rather a help so that we can go further, faster.
We do not have to train ourselves to compete germany phone number list free with “machines”, but rather in the skills that help us get the most out of them.
To address this knowledge gap that digital evolution is creating, we have been training the professionals of the future in digital skills for years, although the gap is far from being closed.
In Spain, universities and business schools, with varying degrees of success, are trying to remedy this problem. The problem is growing faster than we are able to train ourselves.
The reality is that we have to get used to the fact that every x months or years a discipline appears in which we have to train ourselves in order to be up to date. It is a never-ending process, which is becoming faster and faster.
With some delay, but it seems that we will be able to train ourselves in the technical field. We will be able to handle the “machines”. This is basic to be able to face the basics, but it leads us to compete in the line closest to innovation. In other words, we are talking about the positions that will possibly disappear or change as we advance.
The only thing that has remained the same over time and its successive revolutions is the need for soft skills: flexibility, problem-solving skills, innovation skills, time management, ethics and integrity, etc. (later I will give you data from a study that confirms this).
The skills that the digital world demands are not technical
If we talk about the digital world, what we understand in the business world as digital (since in its generic sense it is much broader), the situation I have just described is repeated.
The difference is that we seem to be closing the gap in basic digital skills.
If you think about it, in recent years the language related to digital marketing is becoming a standard. Until very recently, these conversations were limited to a website, and if we go back a little further, the mere fact of talking about the Internet made many executives raise their eyebrows.
The problem is that, just like in the general context, in marketing the most valued training and/or positions are technical ones. Those of people who know how to use the tools (in the broadest sense).
This is very good, because it is also necessary. The problem is that these professions are increasingly tied to the line of innovation. That is, to the positions that are becoming obsolete as innovations appear.
We have more and more people trained in basic and technical skills (and who are also aware that they need to train continuously). With this we are solving one problem, but creating another.
We have people who are technically trained, but who lack the soft behavioral skills that companies demand. Skills that will always be necessary, skills that we can apply to all environments and that make a difference in a company's results (adaptation to change, time management, teamwork, communication, etc.). Our training needs to be more balanced.
As we see in the study carried out by IBM and in the analysis carried out by Josh Bersin , the demand for technical skills is no longer the most in-demand, giving way to behavioural skills.