We are an international research programme dedicated to understanding the prospects for human augmentation, social inclusion and shared prosperity in the fourth industrial revolution.

Education, technology and the future of work in the fourth industrial revolution

Phillip Brown

In Working Paper 2, Prof Phillip Brown asks what, if anything, is significant or ‘revolutionary’ about the fourth industrial revolution? The working paper outlines different interpretations of the role of digital technologies in (re)shaping the education-work relationship. Two contrasting theories of ‘labour scarcity’ and ‘job scarcity’ are presented. Labour scarcity assumes that digital innovation in the fourth industrial revolution will create more and better jobs than it destroys. The primary policy issue being a (mis)alignment in a race between education and technology. Job scarcity, on the other hand, puts forth that the fundamental challenge in the fourth industrial revolution is a transformation of the division of labour under market capitalism towards greater routinisation of knowledge work and deskilling. The lens we use will determine the societal actions we take to prepare for the future, suggesting the need to review some of the key assumptions informing public policy in both Western and Asian countries.

Download full working paper here

The digital evolution of higher education: From high-cost failures to high-risk futures

Richard Watermeyer, Hanne Shapiro and Chen Zan

Working Paper 9 considers how universities are being impacted by and responding to a seemingly infinite emergence of new digital technologies particularly as relates to their role as facilitators of high skilled knowledge economies.

21 September, 2023

English approaches to digital skills policy – some reflections on current directions and developments

Ewart Keep

Working Paper 8 provides a critical review of the UK government’s strategy for addressing digital skill needs. One of the central themes is the question of governmental capacity and where digital skills sits within a hierarchy of policy ‘needs’ and priorities.

05 December, 2022

Finland: AI, policy innovation and the future of work and learning

Hanne Shapiro

Working Paper 7 discusses the deployment of foresight methods in Finland, as a means to address critical uncertainties and plausible futures as means of long-term policy making.

18 October, 2022

Blog

Tales of the Unexpected: reflections on the Digital Futures of Work Research Programme

When we began our studies in August 2019 there was a lot of media hype about robots taking jobs as digital technologies were getting smarter at doing our jobs.

From K-pop and K-drama to ‘K-learning cities’: lessons for the digital era

In recent years, South Korea has been gaining more and more attention in the global market in many areas: for example, K-pop, K-drama and K-food.

Digitalisation’s impacts on occupations and skills – the challenge for English qualifications

Across the developed and developing world the adoption of digital technologies is having an impact on the structure of occupations and careers, and consequently on the skills needed to undertake jobs and job roles.

Digitalisation and English policy capacity

One of the key lessons to emerge from comparative research on national policy responses to digitalisation, automation and AI is that nations start in very different places in terms of their levels of capacity to confront these issues.

Will generative AI lead to a degenerative workforce?

In the final year of our research programme, we’ve witnessed what’s widely believed to be a step-change in digital innovation, resulting from advances in generative AI. In some ways it’s a light bulb moment!

The ‘future worker’: the missing piece in the socio-technical imagery of the ‘future of work’

Perhaps, we have put too much attention on the ‘future of work’ that we lose sight of the ‘future worker’. I was reminded of this in a discussion I recently had with a robotics engineer, Q. His company creates cutting-edge robotics products and services.

If skills are the answer, we could be asking the wrong question

I recently participated in a panel session at the Global Lifelong Learning Summit in Singapore. At the end of the session, we were asked for a final comment which led me to suggest, ‘if skills are the answer, we could be asking the wrong question.’

What does the digital labour market mean for the competition for jobs?

Digital innovation is rapidly transforming how labour markets shape the competition for jobs. People’s increasing online presence means that to recruit talent, companies increasingly have to operate in that digital space and with digital tools.

From paper and pulp to a digital front runner – Finland

Internationally, Finland is often referred to as a model country when it comes to digital transformation. Human capital investments are a central feature in the Finnish success formula.

Work Integrated Learning for future-oriented capabilities

In this blog I am arguing that when we place the emphasis on ‘integrated’, in work integrated learning, it should contribute to changing who our learners are and constantly become.

Why the UK government is failing to address digital skill needs

What is the UK government doing to identify and address future digital skill needs? What follows explores what is being done and points to some of the major gaps that will need filling if a comprehensive and coherent policy response is to emerge.

Digital skills in lower skilled jobs

What are digital skills, how are digital skills requirements changing for those in lower-skilled jobs, and how challenging are they to learn?

Skills-based hiring: More equal opportunities for all?

To what extent does skills-based hiring hold onto the promise of creating more equal opportunities for all in the labour market? And, if indeed so, does this mean that the degree is no longer important?

The current state of play and future possibilities of using A.I. for labour market analysis

The advance in digital information and the use of artificial intelligence (A.I.) have improved the quantity and quality of new labour market information substantially in the last two decades.

Lifelong learning and the fourth industrial revolution

It is still widely accepted that today’s technological advances require a strategic approach to lifelong learning, by increasing the volume and flexibility of human capital to deliver greater individual and shared prosperity.

New methods to understand the labour market in the digital economy

As part of the Digital Futures of Work Programme, we brought together over 30 experts from Europe and Asia to discuss new methods to improve our understanding of skills anticipation, job redesign, and labour markets in a context of rapid digital innovation.

The curious absence of a coherent digital skills policy in the UK

The impacts of digitalisation on skills are, at best, muted in current UK policy debates. Given the importance of digital technologies, why is this? What follows will argue that there are two key reasons.

The future of no work?

At the very beginning of my journey, I was crowing with the flock that “disruption is here”. Armed increasingly with worrying labour market skills data, I pushed same bandwagon that a fundamental skills gaps required quick education, institution, and government intervention.

The emergence of the digital labour market and its perils

Rapid digital innovation is transforming how people look for jobs and how companies recruit. Digital tools give job seekers new ways of describing themselves and employers new sources of data on candidates, in real-time and at low cost. But are there hidden perils?

Living, learning and working in the digital archipelago

When countries across the world went into lockdown due to the pandemic, the shift to online operations was a challenge for many. In Finland, this was not the case as Finland is highly digital, but more importantly, remote and hybrid working models in Finland are rooted in a culture of societal trust.

The future of work is distributed: the challenge of our time

The owner of a small business has difficulty hiring executives to support his firm’s pivot to digital. This is in Singapore, where locals aspire to join large transnational corporations or the public sector.

Looking for a shelter against automation? Your boss might be part of the answer

There is a lot of discussion about robots taking our jobs. Much of it is speculative, usually forecasts based on the opinions of AI experts, who tend to be too enthusiastic about the potential of digital technologies.

There’s a lot at stake in the future of work: a reminder that technology is not destiny

All industrial revolutions are characterised by changes in the nature of work. This is not just a change in the types of jobs people do to earn a living – from farm labourer to factory worker to computer software engineer, etc.

There is an urgent need to reimagine the 4IR in tandem with a progressive conceptualisation of lifelong learning… it would continually attend to the capacities needed under the broad headings of economic participation, personal development and democratic participation of citizens.

David James, Sahara Sadik , Philip Brown

Rethinking lifelong learning in the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ Digital Futures of Work Research Programme, Working Paper 5. (2021)

… skills – at the establishment level – they are not a barrier to labour substitution. By contrast, competitive strategies and management perceptions on workforce competence and commitment are relevant organisational characteristics in the protection against technologically related workforce reduction…