①“Reskilling” is something that sounds like a buzzword but is actually a requirement if we plan to have a future where a lot of would-be workers do not get left behind. ②We know we are moving into a period where the jobs in demand will change rapidly, as will the requirements of the jobs that remain. ③Research by the World Economic Forum finds that on average 42 per cent of the “core skills” within job roles will change by 2022. ④That is a very short timeline.
①The question of who should pay for reskilling is a thorny one. ②For individual companies, the temptation is always to let go of workers whose skills are no longer in demand and replace them with those whose skills are. ③That does not always happen. ④AT&T is often given as the gold standard of a company who decided to do a massive reskilling program rather than go with a fire-and-hire strategy. ⑤Other companies including Amazon and Disney had also pledged to create their own plans. ⑥When the skills mismatch is in the broader economy though, the focus usually turns to government to handle. ⑦Efforts in Canada and elsewhere have been arguably languid at best, and have given us a situation where we frequently hear of employers begging for workers, even at times and in regions where unemployment is high.
①With the pandemic, unemployment is very high indeed. ②In February, at 3.5 per cent and 5.5 per cent respectively, unemployment rates in Canada and the United States were at generational lows and worker shortages were everywhere. ③As of May, those rates had spiked up to 13.3 per cent and 13.7 per cent, and although many worker shortages had disappeared, not all had done so.④ In the medical field, to take an obvious example, the pandemic meant that there were still clear shortages of doctors, nurses and other medical personnel.
①Of course, it is not like you can take an unemployed waiter and train him to be a doctor in a few weeks, no matter who pays for it. ②But even if you cannot close that gap, maybe you can close others, and doing so would be to the benefit of all concerned. ③That seems to be the case in Sweden: When forced to furlough 90 per cent of their cabin staff, Scandinavian Airlines decided to start up a short retraining program that reskilled the laid-off workers to support hospital staff. ④The effort was a collective one and involved other companies as well as a Swedish university.