The Fourth Industrial Revolution, known as Industry 4.0, is the fourth most important industrial stage since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. This stage represents a fundamental change in the way we live, communicate, work and, mainly, how we interact with each other.
This chapter in human development is characterized by a fusion of extraordinary technological advances where the boundaries of physical, digital and biological environments become increasingly diffuse.
However, this revolution is more than a simple change driven by technology, it is an extraordinary opportunity to help and support for all of us as citizens, as social and political leaders, as local and central governments, for all types of people, regardless of their gender, age or income, where we can and should take advantage of emerging technologies to create and build an inclusive future, centered on the human being and its relationship with its context.
The above is seen as a promising present; however, it also generates a series of questions about how this revolution -characterized by mobile connectivity, the Internet of things, artificial intelligence and next-generation robotics, 3D printing, advanced materials, genetic engineering and nanotechnology, all combined and connected- is transforming production and consumption systems, impacting business models, economic growth, sustainability and, with greater evidence, employability and entrepreneurship, demanding different skills and abilities.
Disruptive changes in existing business models are generating a profound impact on the labor landscape. According to the report of the World Economic Forum on the Future of Employment (2016), it is estimated that 65% of children entering primary school today will likely grow up to work in types of work that do not yet exist. In addition, the McKinsey Global Institute projected in 2014 that between 15-25% of the tasks performed by industrial workers in developed countries, and between 5-15% of those same tasks completed in developing countries, could be automated to 2025.
In particular, innovation and new technologies are influencing the skills required for production and consumption, generating a significant impact on the jobs and trades we know today, from the creation of new ones to their displacement, including development of new skills. For example, automation and robotics will reduce direct labor, but they will also require a set of changing skills in the workforce and in the growing entrepreneurship initiatives.
This means that human capital, defined as the knowledge and skills that people possess to create value in the economic system, is significantly evolved. The Global Human Capital Index of the World Bank (2017) classifies the level of development of human capital through four elements:
Capacity: level of formal education of younger and older generations as a result of past education investment.
Development: formal education of the next-generation workforce and continued upskilling and reskilling of the current workforce.
Deployment: application and accumulation of skills among the adult population.
Know how: breadth and depth of specialized skills at work.
Education systems, both formal and informal, direct or indirect, should adapt and anticipate the changes caused by the disruptive innovations resulting from the industrial revolution we are living, working closely with governments, businesses and entrepreneurs to identify the essential skills for the future.
However, as citizens living in society, we have a fundamental and key responsibility for the challenges outlined above, and it is to be permeable and receptive to “lifelong learning”, in which every new experience becomes an opportunity to learn and develop skills as an individual. For Escotet (1992) the fundamental mission of lifelong education is "to teach to learn, to instill that learning is not terminal and to prepare citizens so that after leaving the formal education system they continue learning." To this I add we have to continue learning on our own, without dependence, being guided by our passions and interests, leaving aside the traditional pattern of waiting for external training determined by a third party.
Published 27th Sep. 2019, La República Newspaper, Costa Rica 👈 (spanish version)