Digital Skills for the Artificial Intelligence Revolution

• June 8, 2023
• neelam

The global workforce is today facing a critical period of jobs and skills instability. With a big portion of today’s jobs set to disappear or become displaced by AI, robotics and automation, the world today requires a human workforce which possess proficient digital skills. Pursuant to such predictions, the WEF has recently launched the ‘Reskilling Revolution’, aimed at providing better education, new skills and better work to a billion people by the year 2030. The DS4AIR project supports innovation through the design, development and evaluation of an online training course on Digital Skills in view of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Revolution. This is aimed at improving and extending the reskilling of vulnerable adults in the workforce who possess a lower level of knowledge and digital competences. Consequently, this will future-proof their careers vis-à-vis the anticipated shift and demands in digital skills.

In line with the WEF’s initiative and as a proactive (rather than a reactive) measure, the project’s objectives are:
– to establish the current state of affairs in the business industry in terms of AI readiness
– to identify the gaps between the required new digital skills and competences and the demands of the labour market, in view of the Artificial Intelligence Revolution
– to create a learner persona defining the course’s target audience
– to design and develop an online self-paced training course on digital skills for the Artificial Intelligence Revolution
– to reskill vulnerable adults whose jobs are threatened by the new technologies, hence ensuring their survival and prosperity in the job market
– to analyse the quality and impact (including the degree of satisfaction) of the course through a summative evaluation of the content and instructional design, vis-à-vis the expected learning outcomes
– to write a short recommendations document on digital skills for corporate training in the Artificial Intelligence Revolution

The five participating organisations in the strategic partnership are B&P Emerging Technologies Consultancy Lab Ltd (B&P EmTeC Lab) as lead partner, the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry, the Cámara de Comercio de Valencia (Valencia CCI), the South Eastern Regional College (SERC) and SmartLearning (within the Copenhagen Business Academy). SERC and SmartLearning have years of experience in adult education and in particular in the digital learning domain. The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry and Valencia CCI bring their invaluable business and economic insights and their extensive networks of business affiliations. Finally, B&P EmTeC Lab will lead in the design and development of the online training course and the role of AI in the digitalisation of the business industry.

The project activities are clustered depending on the objectives and tasks leading to the delivery of the intellectual outputs. During the initial months the activities centre around the compilation of the needs analysis, with a multiplier event aimed at attracting the interest of the key stakeholders beyond the consortium. This will then be presented for further feedback and input, during the second multiplier event. In the second cluster, the project activities focus on the design and development of the online training course, with multiplier and training events aimed at receiving valuable feedback from all stakeholders. The third cluster of project activities begin with the evaluation of the online training course, through piloting with a group of vulnerable adults, whose jobs are threatened by the new technologies. The resulting feedback will be used to draft a short recommendations document, which will then be disseminated amongst learning and development professionals in the corporate sector.

In terms of the project’s expected impact, it is envisaged that the results will yield a high quality digital learning environment, based on the needs and requirements of vulnerable adults in today’s workforce. It is also expected that the digital competence of participating adults, will be enhanced, thus improving their careers’ prospects. Participating businesses will be equipped in terms of skilled labour to embrace the disruption brought about by emerging technologies and better placed to understand, assess and act upon the reskilling requirements posed by the foreseeable skills mismatch brought about by the Artificial Intelligence Revolution. In terms of the potential longer term benefits, the online training course will become a valuable open education resource for re/upskilling for business and interested individuals around the world. Furthermore, the resulting recommendations document on digital skills for corporate training in the Artificial Intelligence Revolution will complement the Pan-European policy efforts in the popularisation of digital competences, by providing evidence-based practice for future guidelines.

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