Skills for the future: challenges and opportunities of the digital revolution

Companies are constantly seeking suggestions and solutions to further develop their business in other markets and channels, optimize operational and decision-making processes, analyze and interpret customer purchasing behavior data, enhance cross-functional collaboration, facilitate innovation processes, and motivate their employees.

By dedicating just 5 minutes to expressing their needs, individuals can easily expand the list with at least 15 additional items for concrete solution research. Tracing cause-and-effect relationships among the listed elements reveals that skills play a central role in the evolution of any enterprise, from startups to multinational corporations.

In the last 36 months, deterministic models of skill evolution have faced significant challenges. According to the World Economic Forum (2023), by 2030 there will be approximately 85 million unfilled positions globally, resulting in a potential revenue shortfall of around 8 trillion euros.

This phenomenon is strongly influenced by digital skills, which play a crucial role. But do we all need to become experts in digital technologies? Certainly not. However, it is essential to understand how technologies, and digital skills more broadly, are redefining our current and future jobs. This is a global phenomenon with broad debates and numerous initiatives, including institutional efforts such as "Shaping Europe’s digital future."¹

To address this challenge, it is crucial to raise awareness and accelerate the development of concrete initiatives for skills upgrading. For instance, in the United States, about a third of workers lack sufficient digital skills to navigate the current economic landscape (WEF, 2023). A similar dynamic exists, though with a highly uneven distribution by country, in Europe and across other continents².

Therefore, proactive action is needed, defining a long-term strategy for the development of both digital and non-digital skills. Operationally, businesses can benefit from analyzing and proposing paths for the development and growth of currently necessary skills, as well as paths for emerging skills, the future impact of which may not be clear today.

In this context, online training can offer a significant contribution. For this to be true, it is necessary to design a training path that provides participants with an "amplified" learning experience, leveraging digital opportunities. Several studies and research (Caporarello, Kumar, Agrawal, 2023 ³; WEF, 2023 ⁴; McKinsey & Company, 2023 ⁵; UNESCO, Sustainable Development Goal 4 ⁶) highlight numerous opportunities offered by online training, including:

• accessing online training experiences at the participant's most convenient times and spaces;
• following individualized learner-centric learning paths, supported by "intelligent" systems suggesting contents to delve into based on learning objectives;
• being guided in the composition of a broader learning path, consisting of suggested contents or modules, thus offering the possibility of obtaining certifications for the path and achieved objectives;
• accessing evolving contents and training experiences based on interests, whether online in real-time, asynchronous, hybrid, or in person;
• utilizing various teaching methods and technological tools facilitating the construction of quality and inclusive learning experiences;
• preparing to manage the complexity and uncertainty that characterise, today and increasingly in the future, the modern economic world.

Our growth depends on each of us. Are you ready for that? 

SDA Bocconi School of Management

• ¹ https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en 
• ² International Labour Organization and OECD (2023) Global skills gaps measurement and monitoring: Towards a collaborative framework.
• ³ Caporarello, L., Kumar, P., Agrawal, A. (2023) Higher Education for the Sustainable Development Goals: Bridging the Global North and South, Emerald Publishing
• ⁴ Economic Forum (2023) The top 5 things higher education students want from online learning
• ⁵ McKinsey & Company (2023) What do higher education students want from online learning? 
• ⁶ https://en.unesco.org/themes/education/sdgs/material/04