Introduction & Rationale
The future of work is a topic that has received significant media attention over the last couple of years. Futurists have predicted a coming Fourth Industrial Revolution, characterized by emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and automation, that will profoundly impact and disrupt jobs. The skills that we’ll need for jobs of the future are changing and there are concerns the education system isn’t properly preparing its students. Soft skills such as creativity, critical thinking, and complex problem-solving will increasingly be in high demand globally, as they are more resilient in the face of automation and AI. The skills gap, a difference between the skills the workforce possesses and what jobs actually need, is widening. It has even been referred to as Canada’s "quiet crisis", but the issue is global and the world’s workforce will need to reskill, upskill, and continuously learn to prepare for the future. But how do we know what skills we possess and how they stack up against the future?
Predicting the Growing Skills Gap
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50% or more of the global workforce will need re-skilling in the future as a result of a significant skills gap in all industries.Source: World Economic Forum - The Future of Jobs, 2018
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“Gap between traditional education systems and the labour market could grow with increasing automation and digitization, inadequately preparing Canadians for meaningful participation in the future world of work.”
- FUTURE OF WORK REPORT, 2018
The changing future of work offers an incredible opportunity and demand for learning technologies that can help solve this challenge. As an Educational Venture Analyst that is also part of the education system that needs to prepare our students, I was in search of a visionary venture to potentially invest in that can tackle this challenge and chose to investigate the Toronto based start-up, FutureFit AI.