KEVIN ROBERTS

I read a great article by Natalie Ceeney the other day, making the case that in the UK, increasing the skills of workers (young and old) should be our greatest priority.
I couldn’t agree more.  I was recently asked on a podcast what I thought was the greatest problem facing us this decade.  Unemployment I answered – 50% of all current work will be automated in the next 10 years, with most of those at risk being the youngest, the oldest and disproportionately women.
Huge numbers of people have not been given the right skills at schools / universities and are not equipped to deal with this accelerating reality.  McKinsey believes that by 2030, two thirds of the UK workforce could be lacking basic digital skills and more than 10 million people will be under-skilled in leadership and decision-making.
This will not only impact business competitiveness and productivity, but more alarmingly will widen existing inequalities and social disruption.
Every company needs to put leadership skills training and talent development at the top of its priority list.  And Government needs to up its investment significantly with Education adding skills training to its curriculum at some speed.
I hope Boris and his team get through all this Brexit nonsense quickly and then focus on putting the Great back into Great Britain – by focussing on transforming the way Education and Business think about skill development in this VUCA world.
KR

Recent Posts

Kevin Roberts

Kevin Roberts is founder of Red Rose Consulting; business leader and educator; author and speaker; adviser on marketing, creative thinking and leadership.

READ MORE

Books on Amazon.com

Previous
Next

Join us. Sign up for our blog.

Receive our regular updates in your in-box.