Densil Williams | The future of work

Peter Phillips is on to something.

His riveting presentation to his party conference titled ‘Building a Successful Jamaica’ touched on the most important variable in achieving this goal, education. In his very comprehensive speech on September 22, Phillips outlined a plethora of initiatives grounded in the philosophical paradigm of his intellectual undergirding, democratic socialism. His more-than-hourlong speech was rich in content, intellectually engaging, visionary, but practical and delivered with much vigour and vitality.

Despite the programmes outlined to break the structural rigidities that have prevented more Jamaicans from enjoying the benefits of the prosperity message being propagated by the Holness administration, the most far-reaching point was access revolution in education. This is most important if we are to build a sustainable, prosperous Jamaica where the majority of its people can lead a decent standard of living. The World Economic Forum Future of Work project tells the story best.

The Future of Work Project reports that by 2030, more than 1.37 million people in the USA alone will have to be retrained at a cost of over US$34 billion in order to keep their jobs or be left behind as the work environment changes. These findings are relevant not only to the USA but economies in general.

The work environment of the future will focus less on technical competencies as artificial intelligence (AI) will render those redundant. Ubiquitous technologies and algorithms will be able to do almost all technical and routine tasks in the very near future. The research shows that less than a decade from now, the fastest-declining jobs will be:

• Secretaries and administrative assistants, except those in legal and medical fields.

• Cashiers.

• Bookkeepers, accounting and audit clerks.

• Data-entry personnel.

• Electrical and electronic assemblers.

Similarly, the emerging jobs will mainly be:

• Big data architecture technicians.

• Automation technicians.

• Renewable-energy engineers.

• IT project managers.

• Organisational design specialists.

• Digital transformation specialists.

These jobs will require a new type of skill set. These will include:

• Analytical thinking and innovation.

• Active learning and learning strategies.

• Critical thinking and analysis.

• Reasoning, problem solving and ideation.

• Complex problem solving.

• Emotional intelligence.

• Creativity, originality and initiative.

Policymakers will have to be aware of these trends and start making the right policy decisions to motivate the necessary outcomes for the future skills that our people will require to actively compete in the global labour market. Juxtaposing these emerging jobs and the emerging skill set with those in today’s Jamaica, the message is clear.

We are in for a rude awakening with this prosperity message if we do not address the issues in the education system. Urgently. If we continue on the current path, the only outcome will be greater levels of poverty, not prosperity for the vast majority of our people.

Without the confusing and bungled implementation of the Primary Exit Profile exam, the paradigm shift in the curriculum and philosophy is commendable, and could trigger the change towards the skills for the future, and the future of work, for a new Jamaica.

Phillips and the Access Revolution in Education

Phillips’s philosophical and practical proposals for education are spot on and will augur well for building competitive human capital in Jamaica. For example, at the tertiary level, tying the repayment of students’ loan to income is one of the most far-reaching proposals to date. For, the high level of delinquency at the loan bureau is not just that people do not want to repay. It is that the repayment is burdensome given the very menial income most persons earn. Capping payment at certain level of income will surely allow more persons to afford the repayment and also motivate them to take the loan to pay for their tertiary education. Tertiary education is critical for, the emerging skills of the 21st Century will not be gained at the primary or secondary level, but at the tertiary level. Investment in tertiary education (meaning everything beyond secondary level not just universities) will be the only and most sustainable way to real prosperity. Anything else is a mere illusion.

Most important, however, is Phillips’ conceptualisation of the ontology of education. He correctly posits:

“Our emphasis on education must also include:

• Values and attitudes.

• National pride and self-respect.

• It must include respect for humanity that connects you with other people.

• Respect for the environment, which is vitally important, especially for our own survival.

“Our emphasis on education must focus on innovation. We have to make a special effort to drive science and technology and place new subjects like robotics, animation, coding, and app development at the centre of education.”

aligned with the future

These intellectually robust propositions are what we need from our political directorate. For, if one looks at the skills that are dying today and the ones emerging by 2022, they will see that Phillips’ propositions align well with the future, not the past.

The inclusion of his agenda items in the education curriculum will be crucial to build the skills needed for the emerging work environment in 21st-century Jamaica. Phillips now needs to flesh out in greater detail how a government led by him will execute on these urgent reforms.

The fourth industrial revolution has rendered traditional thinking on talent development and management redundant. As such, policymakers who are seeking to move citizens from poverty to prosperity will have to think differently about how to educate their citizens to build the human capital stock of their countries for global competition.

- Densil Williams is professor of international business at the UWI. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and densilw@yahoo.com.