Page 16 - Service Delivery Review_Volume 14_Number 3_2022

Public Service Digital Skilling

To catch up and forge ahead, UNCTAD The state, industry and labour unions WHAT IS THE IDEAL SKILLS SET FOR
urges developing countries to adopt should work together to optimise the FRONTIER TECHNOLOGIES?
frontier technologies while continuing potential of these technologies for The “Preparing the Workforce” section
to diversify their production bases by generating faster productivity. of the UNCTAD’s Technology and In-
mastering a range of existing technol- novation Report 2021 might paint a
ogies. They need to strengthen their In this regard, UNCTAD’s STI Policy sombre picture of the future in which
innovation systems, most of which Reviews , which are accessible on the many known jobs have been ren-
are weak and prone to systemic fail- agency’s website, can help govern- dered redundant. However, it equally
ures and structural deficiencies, the ments integrate STI policies into their points out new job opportunities in
report says. “A whole-of-government national development strategies while workplaces driven by frontier tech-
approach is needed to absorb these working towards achieving the SDGs. nologies. Unsurprisingly, listed among
technologies, as opposed to working The Technology and Innovation Report the composite skills that would be re-
in silos,” Ms. Sirimanne said. also urges policymakers to help peo- quired as “frontier technologies” take
ple acquire the necessary digital skills root in most sectors of society are the
Developing countries should also align and competencies to adopt and adapt so-called STEM subjects, or Science,
science, technology and innovation frontier technologies into their coun- Technology, Engineering and Mathe-
(STI) and industrial policies, according tries’ existing production bases. Gov- matics. What might come as a surprise
to Ms. Sirimanne. “New technologies ernments should also seek to connect (and are often not emphasised as hav-
can re-invigorate traditional produc- everyone online, focusing on those ing equal importance) are the so-called
tion sectors and speed up industriali- currently farthest behind, as frontier “soft skills”. These, according to the re-
zation and economic structural trans- technologies demand greater digitali- port, are essential in developing the ca-
formation,” she added. sation and connectivity. They should pacity for creative and critical thinking
provide incentives and subsidies not that enable solving complex problems.
UNCTAD also calls on governments just for internet access but also for the However, the paradox, says the re-
to draw in various actors who can devices through which people get con- port, is that “these capacities are usu-
help build synergies between STI and nected. ■ ally learned by doing”. How does one
other economic policies – industrial, develop skills for jobs that do not yet
trade, fiscal, monetary and educational. exist? Or worse still, acquire on the
job training and experience for frontier
technologies jobs? Well, the “Prepar-
ing the Workforce” section suggests
that the least that countries can do is
to anticipate and devise plans to “fos-
ter ecosystems of firms to provide the
jobs, training and experience”. Malay-
sia and the Republic of Korea respec-
tively set themselves the goals of 14
270 and 30 000 jobs that would be
created using frontier technologies
and the Internet of Things by 2020.
Likewise, the United Kingdom set the
target of growing an AI-ready work-
force of some 20 000 over the same
period by making interventions in its
education system and advocating life-
long learning in workplaces. Accord-
ing to the report “the transition to fron-
tier technologies and onwards will be
a continuous process” in which “train-
ing and retraining workers will increas-
ingly become the joint responsibility of
governments, employers and works”.
Already, confronted by the increasing
automation of jobs across many sec-
tors, trade unions in the United States
of America are campaigning for the up-
skilling of their workers in preparation
for the inevitable automation in many
workplaces, says the report. ■

16 Volume 14 No.3 of 2022 | SERVICE DELIVERY REVIEW