Are you thinking of upskilling? Here’s why you should choose technology.
Amazon researchers estimate that Australia needs an additional 6.5 million digital workers by 2025 to narrow the skills gap and keep pace with global shifts in technology. If you are thinking of upskilling, choose tech.
Amazon’s cloud arm, Amazon Web Services, commissioned consulting firm AlphaBeta to conduct the research which includes Australian data based on a survey of more than 500 local digital workers and interviews of technology experts, business leaders, and policymakers.
Amazon’s current workforce projection sees a growing demand in seven key digital areas, ranging from; efficient use of digital devices, digital problem-solving, artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to data privacy and cyber security.
Professionals who want to make themselves indispensable in the post-pandemic workplace would be foolish if they didn’t upskill in artificial intelligence, experts noted.
Without adding millions of newly skilled and reskilled digital workers Australia will miss out on $ billions in post pandemic economic growth, according to the report which analysed countries’ digital capabilities across APAC.
The technology sector currently contributes about $122 billion to the economy, about 6.6 per cent of GDP, but that figure could rise to $207 billion annually by 2030 with the right policy settings and digital skills training.
“Our research shows that business-as-usual approaches to digital skill development won’t get us there,
The challenge is huge, but the payoff would be tremendous in terms of stronger economic growth, higher incomes, and a more equitable and resilient economy,” said Dr. Fraser Thompson, Managing Director of AlphaBeta.
Thinking of Upskilling? Choose Technology
“The world has shifted to remote working and learning and companies have aggressively made changes to get more productive and efficient,” Martin Herbst, Chief Executive of JobAdder says.The great news is that these workers will not replace human capabilities, but rather enhance them.
Digital workers will work alongside AI or robots across industries. In the future workplace, organisations will maximize value through automation and augmentation.
Business 4.0 is the next wave of change across organisations. Digital technologies such as cloud, automation, robotics and artificial intelligence are vital in the transition to this stage if business, and require skilled digital workers to configure and maintain the transformation.
Technology will also create new jobs, and give rise to the possibility of redesigning work, and creating growth opportunities and greater value for businesses.
However, efforts need to be made from businesses to invest in the training and upskilling of their workers in technological advances.
Professor Aleksandar Subic, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice President at RMIT University commented, “this is really a call to arms involving government, industry, education and research institutions to work together, because to address the widening digital skills gap across the industry and society, we need our ecosystem to be interconnected, we need to work collaboratively at a level that we’ve never worked at before.”
