Part 7: It’s All about Skills

What a crazy week it has been.  I was honored with an invite to attend the White House Pledge to America’s Workers event last week in response to IPC’s commitment to provide more than one million job opportunities to the U.S. workforce over the next five years.

Because the skills gap is a critical issue worldwide, IPC is also researching ways to see if can we make the same kind of pledge in Europe in 2019.  The primary way IPC will be supporting our European members is by providing training g opportunities to individuals, which leads me right into today’s topic on skills and continuous learning.

We continue to hear fearful prognostications about artificial intelligence (AI), robots and other ways in which we will be replaced in the workplace[i].  A November 2017 McKinsey study estimates that by 2030, 50% of current work activities are automatable by already tested technologies.[ii]  Whether your job is eliminated due to automation, a merger, or something like corporate restructuring, when you are out of work…it is one of the worst feelings in the world.  But we are not helpless beings.  We can prepare for what might be considered the inevitable.  At some point, you either needed to find a job or you will need to find a job.  So, what to do?

The U.S. Labor Department reported recently[iii] that there are 6.66 million jobs available, but only around 6.56 million people...