This question is closely associated with the issue of occupational training: how do we adapt education so that it can equip people to do the types of work needed in the future? Here we should draw a distinction between industrial economies, where most people are wage-earners, and other economies where self-employment or casual work are still the norm. In societies where most people are in paid employment, which have developed throughout the Twentieth century based on the industrial model, automation is making this model increasingly "intangible". It emphasizes the knowledge component of tasks, even in industry, as well as the importance of services in the economy. The future of these economies hinges on their ability to turn advances in knowledge into innovations that will generate new businesses and new jobs. "Learning to do" can no longer mean what it did when people were trained to perform a very specific physical task in a manufacturing process. Skill training therefore has to evolve and become more than just a means of imparting the knowledge needed to do a more or less routine job. From certified skills to personal competence T There are several reasons for this increase in skill requirements at all levels. Instead of being organized to perform specified tasks in juxtaposition in accordance with Taylor‘s principles of scientific labour organization, manufacturing workers are often divided into work teams or project groups on the Japanese model. This approach represents a departure from the idea of dividing labour into similar physical tasks which are essentially learned by repetition. Furthermore, the idea of personalized tasks is taking over from that of employee interchangeability. There is a growing trend among employers to evaluate potential employees in terms of their personal competence rather than certified skills which they see as merely demonstrating the ability to perform specific physical tasks. This personal competence is assessed by looking at a mix of skills and talents, combining certified skills acquired through technical and vocational training, social behaviour, personal initiative and a willingness to take risks. If we add a demand for personal commitment on the part of employees in their role as change agents, it is clear that this kind of personal competence involves highly subjective innate or acquired qualities, often referred to as "people skills" or "interpersonal skills" by employers, combined with knowledge and other job skills. Of these qualities, communication, team and problem-solving skills are assuming greater importance. The growth of the service industries has resulted in an increase in this trend. The shift away from physical work - the service industries I Many services are defined primarily in terms of the interpersonal relationship involved. Examples of this are found both in the rapidly expanding private service sector which is benefiting from the growing complexity of economies (every kind of expertise imaginable, security services or high-tech consultancy services, financial, accounting and management services) and in the more traditional public sector (social services, health and education services, etc.). In both these cases, information and communication play a vital role. The key aspect here is the personalized acquisition and processing of specific data for a clearly defined project. In this type of service, both the provider and the user influence the quality of the relationship between them. Clearly, people can no longer be trained for this sort of work in the same way as they learned how to plough the land or make a sheet of steel. These new jobs are about interpersonal relationships; workers‘ relationships with the materials and processes they are using are secondary. The growing service sector needs people with good social and communication skills - skills that are not necessarily taught at school or university. Lastly, in the ultra high-tech organizations of the future, where relational inadequacies might cause serious dysfunctions, new types of skills will be required, with an interpersonal rather than intellectual basis. This may provide an opportunity for people with few or no formal educational qualifications. Intuition, common sense, judgement and leadership skills are not confined to highly qualified people. How and where are these more or less innate skills to be taught? The problem is akin to that raised by the idea of vocational training in developing countries. Educational content simply cannot be inferred from a statement of the skills or abilities required for specific tasks. Work in the informal economy T In other developing countries, a thriving unofficial modern economy based on trade and finance may exist alongside a small official economic sector and agriculture. This parallel economy indicates the existence of business communities capable of meeting local requirements. In both these cases, there is no point in providing the population with high-cost training (since the teachers and the educational resources have to come from abroad) either in conventional industrial skills or in advanced technology. On the contrary, education should be brought into endogenous development by strengthening local potential and the spirit of empowerment. We then have to address a question that applies to both developed and developing countries: how do people learn to act appropriately in an uncertain situation, how do they become involved in shaping the future? How can people be prepared to innovate? T In all countries, lastly, the growing importance of small groups, networking and partnerships highlights the likelihood that excellent interpersonal skills will be an essential job requirement from now on. What is more, the new working patterns, whether in industry or in the service sector, will call for the intensive application of information, knowledge and creativity. All things considered, the new forms of personal competence are based on a body of theoretical and practical knowledge combined with personal dynamism and good problem-solving, decision-making, innovative and team skills. All rights reserved. This information may be freely used and copied for education and other non commercial purposes, provided that any reproduction of data be accompanied by an acknowledgement of UNESCO as the source. Any other use of the information requires the permission from UNESCO and requests should be directed to the Task Force on Education for the Twenty-first Century.
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