Q8: Changes needed in the labour market

• Need for collaboration between stakeholders
• Access to decent education
• More focus and investment in vocational skills and digital skills in emerging economies especially
• Living wage
• Strengthening worker voice + protections
• Shift from thinking of jobs to tasks
• Worker-centric, meaningful work = decent work
• Challenging the concept of economic growth

Policy/regulatory needs:

• Flexible regulatory systems
• Strong equality and human rights legislation

Final poll result

Looks like most of us agree that we need to provide youth with accurate information about pay, lifestyle and future job availability for skilled trades workers

Q7: Equal access to work + preparation for change

Ideas to move to more equality:

• diversity in leadership
• equal pay policies
• ensuring basic skills in STEM and IT skills
• early investnment incubators/ accelerators as job creators to invest in talent
• building close-knit communities to see outcomes and value of work
• businesses should take more responsibility to integrate people, inc in supply chain

Q6: Vocational skills

Vocational skills highly valued across the world from India to the US

• Need for more investment and policies focussed on VET and lifelong learning
• Should we be distinguishing between types of skills?
• Barriers currently preventing women from attaining vocational skills
• Examples of SkillsUSA and Worldskills - promoting careers opps that don't require a degree

Q5: Role of dif stakeholders

Need for close collaboration and longer term partnership between "world of work" and "world of education", as well as policy-makers. NGOs can also play a role in partnerships

Latest poll result

Clearly points to risks facing manufacturing workforce around the world

Q4: Jobs of tomorrow

Difficult to predict. WEF: 65% of children entering primary school today will end up working in jobs that don’t yet exist 

• combining skills likely to increase in importance
• digital capabilities increasingly important
• more sustainability, circular jobs and SDG jobs
• but consumerism still high so consumer goods + agri still important
• partnership skills may become an important career path
• mentoring more important
• but despite the change a comment that the nature of coming toether to work will always be part of the human condition

Q3: Skills gap - how to help workers thrive

Key theme so far is partnership and collaboration between educators, employers and policy-makers

• Collaboration with Gov to identify emerging skills gaps 
• Education system must prepare students with future-relevant skills
• Requires collaboration with employers
• Apprenticeships can be win-win
• Training and education on the job
• Blending the school to work transition 
• Companies should also look into  supply chains and invest in capacity building among suppliers
• Universities using more "authentic assessment" strategies - real life scenarios and assignments

Poll questions so far

Both sets of results point to the importance of reducing inequality and ensuring access to education 

Q2. Rapid business change + implications for employers/employees

TECH: IoT, Industry 4.0, automation, data and analytics > reshaping how work is done and replacing jobs with automation

• Creates need for upskilling and reskilling and lifelong learning
• Transformation of HR processes required - to focus on employability
• Need to ensure resiliency of workers
• Hyper-specialization -  uncertain impacts

NEW FORMS OF CAPITAL:

• Redefining products/services to lessen negative impacts
• Again, needs upskilling and/or reallocation of workforce

CHANGING FORMAT OF "WORK":

• Gig economy will continue to change things
• Definition of a "good job" will shift
• Are essential freelancers employees? = blurring of firm boundaries

Q1. Factors inhibiting decent work/growth

Ideas mentioned so far:

• persistent unemployment (inc youth)
• weak/unstable growth, low productivity 
• high levels of informality, changing format of jobs (knowledge economy creating waves, sharing economy etc.)
• poverty, health and human rights challenges
• demographic changes – aging population
• tech evolutions
• working conditions (safety, precariousness, instability, low income, etc);
• low quality education systems, lack of education investment
• corruption, poor governance by public sector