Skills requirements in cutting-edge technologies for green and digital futures: Implications for STI policy
15 June 2023, 9h30-18h00
Workshop summary
Overview of the workshop and key takeaways
Workshop overview
The green and digital transitions are intrinsically linked to the advancements and innovations of cutting-edge technologies, such as advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, battery technologies, hydrogen technologies and quantum technologies Without the continuous innovation and progress in areas such as renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and waste management, achieving meaningful and lasting environmental sustainability would be challenging, if not impossible. From renewable energy and smart grids to digital platforms and data analytics, these technologies are at the forefront of driving the green and digital transformations. As such, the importance of skills in enabling and supporting these transitions cannot be overstated. A highly skilled workforce is essential for the effective development, implementation, and management of these technologies, making skills a critical factor in shaping science, technology, and innovation (STI) policies that aim to accelerate the green and digital futures.
Organisational ecosystem capabilities play a crucial role in ensuring that skills are effectively utilised to bring about transformative change. For instance, in the context of digital transformation, strong data infrastructures enable frontier data analytics and access to networks of big data capacities are critical. Similarly, in the green transition, access to service providers with capabilities in renewable energy technologies, sustainable supply chain management, and circular economy practices play an important role to implement environmentally friendly initiatives. Developing these capabilities often requires a combination of strategic planning, resource allocation, and leadership commitment.
The need for STI policies to actively contribute to addressing the skills and capability requirements for the digital transformation and green transition cannot be underestimated. Manyindividualsandorganisationslacktheskillsnecessarytoeffectivelyenableandshape these transitions. As cutting-edge technologies continue to reshape industries and sectors, the STI system faces a significant challenge in meeting the new skill and capability demands. STI policy can also support enhancing organisational capabilities by providing support through funding mechanisms, fostering partnerships between industry and academia, and creating a favourable regulatory environment.
However, addressing these skills gaps requires a multi-faceted approach that involves not only STI policies but also cooperation with other policy areas, including labour market and education policies. Collaboration between these policy domains is essential to ensure that the workforce is equipped with the right skills and capabilities to thrive in the changing landscape of the green and digital futures. By working collectively, STI policies can help bridge the skills gap and foster a skilled workforce that can drive innovation, sustainability, and economic growth in the digital and green transitions.
The OECD Working Party on Technology and Innovation Policy (TIP) organised its workshop ‘Skills requirements in cutting-edge technologies for green and digital futures: Implications for STI policy’ to explore the role of STI policy in skills and capability development for driving the digital and green transitions
The workshop was organised around the following three themes:
• New skills and capabilities needs in STI: How have the skills and capabilities needs in the field of STI changed over the past decades? What demands can be expected in the future? How can STI actors determine the competencies that will be required to generate innovation and advance transitions in the future?
• Developing skills and organisational ecosystem capabilities for cutting-edge technologies: How can skills be developed to drive the development and adoption of cutting-edge technologies for advancing the digital and green transitions, considering the rapid acceleration of technological development and societal transitions? What organisational ecosystem capabilities are enabling transitions, and how can governments support them?
• The role of STI in skills policy: What is the role of STIpolicy in the wider context of skills policies, and how can effective governance arrangements be established to align skills policies with strategic innovation priorities and stakeholder interests in the skills ecosystem?
Discussions built on the 2023 edition of the OECD Science, Technology and Innovation
Outlook and the OECD-DSIT workshop “STI systems in transitions: Effective approaches to address skills and capabilities needs” held in April 2023.
The full agenda is available here
Key takeaways
The following key takeaways can be drawn from the workshop:
1. The heightened demand for cutting-edgetechnologies, driven by current developments, necessitates a swifter pace in the demand for various skills. The emergence of new policy imperatives, which involve the successful execution of digital transformation and expedited progress in green initiatives, necessitates the concurrent development of critical technologies. These imperatives are compounded by the backdrop of enduring long-term trends, such as population aging and escalating geopolitical tensions While the latter shapes the search for developing those technologies, the former poses a challenge to skills development itself.
2. A variety of skills are needed to meet the technology-development goals. Highly skilled individuals are in high demand in the fields of artificial intelligence, renewable energy, and quantum computing. Multidisciplinary research skills have often proven particularly critical to advancing across different lines of work Practical, transversal skills to commercialise and
SKILLS REQUIREMENTS IN CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGIES FOR GREEN AND DIGITAL FUTURES
diffuse innovation, such as management, leadership, commercial, sales and problem-solving skills, are also in demand, the full extent to which is not fully known at this point.
3. Skills needs are exacerbated by several challenges that affect the workforce. Population ageing, lack of interest in pursuing a career in or staying in sectors/activities needed for transitions as well as losing potential future human capital due to exclusion challenges (inclusion of minorities or socio-economic groups with low incomes) are obstacles many countries face that negatively affect workforce development. There is also a challenge of emigration of highly demanded skilled people some countries face.
4. Collaboration arrangements between government, industry and education providers can be leveraged to respond to skills challenges Skills councils and integrated institutions, such as the dedicated agency SkillNet in Ireland, or the cross-sectoral Do Digi Forum exchanges on digital skills in Finland, can help identify skills needs and develop solutions Skills agencies can also help and business associations can also be useful instruments in identifying public priorities. Agile processes in order not to slow down necessary adaptation processes will also matter for outcomes.
5. Re-thinking re-skilling programmes to pro-actively build a versatile and diverse workforce is necessary in view of changing circumstances. With more remote work, worker preferences with regard to flexibility, fewer fulltime long-term employees and more reliance on subcontractors and service providers, the context in which to organise re-skilling programmes for those already in the workforce changes. This requires careful consideration as to how to ensure the workforce is best prepared to support transition processes. Moreover, outreach campaigns will also matter for public skills building offers to reach a wider community and ensure greater inclusivity.
Background of the event
Welcome remarks and an introduction to the main themes of the workshop were provided by the Chair of the TIP, Göran Marklund, Deputy Director General at VINNOVA Mr Marklund highlighted the importance of STI skills and capabilities in advancing on the digital and green transitions.
Alessandra Colecchia, Head of Science and Technology Policy Division, Directorate for Science,TechnologyandInnovation,OECD,providedadditionalintroductoryremarksand positioned the topic of skills and capabilities in thecontext ofthe CSTP’s S&T Policy 2025 initiative. Ms Colecchia characterised skills and capabilities in STI as an enabler of transition, but also a potential bottleneck. She emphasised the need for a variety of skills for research and development of cutting-edge technologies and their diffusion. She also emphasised the need for cross-disciplinarity to confront the many challenges and that the skills needs arise across the spectrum of the STI ecosystem, including for researchers in universities and research organisations, the workforce in private companies, citizens and policymakers. She also highlighted the need for cross-sectoral action on STI skills and capabilities.
Caroline Paunov, Senior Economist and Head of the TIP Secretariat, Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, provided context for the workshop, emphasising the role of cutting-edge technologies for transitions and the importance of rethink skills and capabilities beyond the role of researchers and scientists only An example she provided regardsthe need for construction workers with the knowledgeto retrofit housessothat they
are more energy-efficient. Moreover, she pointed to the importance of green and digital literacy and awareness as key attributes for change. Lack of awareness among the population will like reduce support for public investments in the green transition and also reduce businesses’ bottom-up actions to address their environmental footprint. Ms Paunov also provided definitions of skills and capabilities for the purposes of the workshop and further TIP work (Figure 1).
Session 1. Keynotes: A rapidly changing and complex landscape for innovation policy
Tera Allas, Director of Research and Economics, McKinsey, highlighted in her keynote presentation the complexity of transitions. She also noted that policies aimed at enhancing STI skills and capabilities also need to consider the context of other megatrends, such as ageing societies, geopolitical changes, the future of work and the competitive impacts of emerging Asia on the world economy
Moreover, she emphasised that for new technologies to support innovation, their diffusion is necessary. Consequently, the provision of necessary infrastructure and societal readiness will matter, among other factors (see Figure 2). Finally, she emphasised the need to consider a broad spectrum of skills, including the needs to consider basic digital, and information processing skills.
SKILLS REQUIREMENTS IN CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGIES FOR GREEN AND DIGITAL FUTURES
Source: Presentation by Tera Allas “Innovating innovation: future skills for successful transitions” at the workshop
Erik Arnold, Senior Partner, Technopolis Group, focussed his keynote presentation on how skills’ needs emerge in view of the current goals of innovation policy. He noted that skills are central to the innovation economy, which is currently changing rapidly. Everpresent skills shortages area result of jobs beingcreated to make and usenew technologies.
Addressing them, he emphasised, is a coordination challenge. Both government and industryhavetoreactmorequicklyandelaboratethecostsharingfor educationandtraining needs and their provision He also noted that overcoming the coordination challenge with regards to skills may be easier today than in the past. This is because research and innovation governance have over time developed to be more holistic, and, in the current era of wide-ranging transitions, focus on societal challenges and integrating many STI stakeholders beyond ministries (see Figure 3)
Source: Presentation by Erik Arnold “Big Waves and Skills” at the workshop
Finally, Erik Arnold echoed Tera Allas’ emphasis on considering the need for a diversity of skills. He added to this debate that skills building should focus on teaching ‘new’ technologies to experts with deep knowledge of existing technologies, while middle-level skills matter for the broad use of new technologies.
Session 2. Frontier technologies: what skills are needed to develop them?
The panel discussion in Session 2 brought together four representatives from different policy areas to discuss the skills implications of cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, batteries and cross-cutting issues in the green and digital transitions (Figure 4).
Julie Lassebie, Economist at the OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs (ELS), discussed the skills and capabilities needed to develop and adopt artificial intelligence (AI), and the findings of the recent Employment Outlook 2023 (OECD, 2023[1])
Developing and maintaining AI requires a multifaceted skill set, including specialised AI knowledge, proficiency in data science, strong problem-solving abilities, and social and management skills. The demand for highly-skilled workers in the AI field is on the rise, with over half of AI-adopting employers emphasising the importance of a well-educated workforce. Moreover, to effectively use AI, the wider workforce needs to have at least basic digital skills, analytical capabilities, critical thinking, and sound judgment. Additionally, adopting AI within organisations requires change management expertise and a foundational understanding of AI.
Public interventions have an important role to play to ensure equity. Training programmes aimed at upskilling low-skilled workers are very important in this context. Despite recent advances in AI regarding the potential of automating tasks requiring high-level skills, occupation requiring a lower level of skills are still at a higher risk of automation through AI and other automation technology (Lassébie, 2023[2]). At the same time, skills are also proving a bottleneck for adopting AI in the workplace: in an OECD survey of workers and
8 SKILLS REQUIREMENTS IN CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGIES FOR GREEN AND DIGITAL FUTURES
companies in the manufacturing and financial sectors in seven OECD countries, approximately 40% of the over 2,000 employers surveyed in January-February 2022 indicated that a lack of relevant skills hinders AI adoption (Lane, Williams and Broecke, 2023[3]). More than two thirds of firms have responded to this by retraining and upskilling workers internally (Lane,Williams and Broecke,2023[3]), but teaching basic AI knowledge and literacy on a broader scale through formal education can offer benefits for the advancement of AI and its broader societal impacts (Lassébie, 2023[2]).
Olga Strietska-Ilina, Senior Skills and Employability Specialist; Work area leader Skills Strategies for Future Labour Markets, ILO, spoke about the skills mix needed for the green and digital transitions to succeed in an international context. The pace of change and skills requirements vary significantly between countries and sectors. The urgency of green skills in all countries is immediate due to the negative impacts of climate change that touch developing countries disproportionately
While science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills are crucial at a high level, the green and digital transformations require lifelong learning approaches targeting also mid-level technical and soft skills. Soft skills, often referred to as core employability skills, including creativity, problem-solving, analytical thinking, and thinking outside the box, are transferable between jobs and industries. Middle-level skills are of great importance, as evidenced by ILO research, emphasizing the need for strong and diverse Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to ensure success in labour markets, economies, and individual careers. For instance, a plumber must not only understand traditional plumbing equipment but also green technologies like heat pumps and digital tools like IoT, along with customer service and cross-cutting skills.
Ms Strietska-Ilina also noted that technology offers new ways to address training needs by delivering skills-building measures more dynamically and in more targeted ways to different learners’ needs.
Neil Abroug, Head of the French National Quantum Strategy, Secrétariat général pour l'investissement, emphasised the specific skills needed for quantum computing technologies, the reason for skills gaps, and how to build a quantum skills supply. Private sector competition for top skills needed to develop quantum computing posed a major challenge to the research.
To develop and build quantum computers, high-skilled researchers with PhD-level education in physics, mathematics, computer science are needed to continue basic research on the underlying theory of quantum particles. Also, engineering and technical-level working skills are needed in order to physically build quantum computers, such as in the fields of electronics, cryogenics, or on lasers. At the current development stage, the focus is on identifying potential future use cases of quantum computers and developing algorithms to be used by quantum computers Interdisciplinary collaboration, especially between physics and computer science, is crucial to quantum computing, with a diverse set of skills needed for the development/building of quantum computers.
He noted that ways to address the skills needs in this field are to increase the pool of available talent in natural sciences, such as through secondary school awareness campaigns, re-skilling of existing technical experts and attracting skilled researchers from abroad.
Oana Penu, Director, InnoEnergy Skills Institute, highlighted the challenges of skills needs for the battery value chain in Europe and the activities of the InnoEnergy Skills Institute and the European Battery Alliance to address these (see Figure 5).
Source: Presentation by Oana Penu at the workshop
Ms Penunotedthat challengesinEuropewithskillsneedsforbatteriesrelatetotheincrease inthevolumeofbatteries expectedtobeproducedinashorttimespan.Athreefoldincrease in battery demand is projected between 2022 and 2025 Moreover, the width of skills needs – InnoEnergy estimates that over 700 job types will be relevant in the battery workforce (see Figure 6 for examples broken down by stage of the supply chain and type of work) –and the geographical coverage – the regional and national concentration where battery gigafactories arelocated, while experts maylive in other regions or even countries required – add to the challenge.
SKILLS REQUIREMENTS IN CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGIES FOR GREEN AND DIGITAL FUTURES
Source: Presentation by OanaPenu at the workshop; sources noted in thepresentation: EIT InnoEnergy & EBA Academy own research (2018-2022) and input from EBA250 network, Future Expert Needs in the Battery Sector report (EIT Raw Materials and Fraunhofer, March 2021), ALBATTS reports (2020, 2021), Task Force on Education and Skills report, (ETIP 2020-2021).
Ms Penu also presented the training concept and programmes of the InnoEnergy Skills Institute for technicians, well-qualified personnel, highly qualified personnel for different stages of battery development (see Figure 7). These training concepts and programmes are built on the basis of analytical workthat goes into identifyingand developing thesetraining (data capture and management of new skills needs; data analysis of needs throughout the value chain; jobs skills and competency mapping).
SKILLS REQUIREMENTS IN CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGIES FOR GREEN AND DIGITAL FUTURES
Source: Presentation by Oana Penu at the workshop
The discussionfocusedonon-the-joblearningneedsasanimportantcomplementto formal education, where technological innovation is proceeding rapidly The feasibility of agile re- and upskilling depends on the agility of the national educational context Furthermore, education was deemed essential not only to develop technical competence for innovation, but also for the societal and regulatory context of new technologies, such as ethical use of AI.
Session 3. How to successfully put skills to use: the role of organisational capabilities
Session 3 started with a keynote speech by Professor Elizabeth Altman on the concept of workforce ecosystems, and continued with short interventions from Frans Gemerdeen on systems innovation and wicked policy challenges, and Tiina Hanhike on digital skills initiatives in Finland (see Figure 8).
SKILLS REQUIREMENTS IN CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGIES FOR GREEN AND DIGITAL FUTURES
Figure 8.
Elizabeth Altman, Associate Professor of Management, Manning School of Business, University of Massachusetts Lowell, spoke about her research on innovative waysin which businesses and public sector institutions engage successfully with skilled workforce, drawing from examples analysed in the recently published “Workforce Ecosystems: Reaching StrategicGoalswithPeople,Partners, and Technologies”(Altmanet al.,2023[4])
She emphasised the need for considering changes in workforce developments. Important developments regard the changing nature of work, changing preferences of workers (e.g. working schedules and modes) and the effect of technology on managing work. These can impact the ability of an organisation to attract skilled workers and work with them effectively.
Moreover, Ms Altman emphasised it was important to develop a functional ‘workforce ecosystem’ –astructurethatfocusesonvaluecreationforallinvolvedwithanorganisation, including subcontractors, freelancers, service providers. Such an ecosystem also needs to optimise on how technological IT solutions, such as apps or chatbots designed and deployed by other companies (see Figure 9) for workforce management. The social responsibility of organisations for their workforce ecosystems, and the leadership needs in amorenetworked,interconnected,interdependent worldalsomattertotheireffectiveusage (Figure 10)
Source: Presentation by Elizabeth Altman at the workshop and Altman et al. (2023[4])
Source: Presentation by Elizabeth Altman at the workshop and Altman et al. (2023[4])
Frans Gemerdeen, Program Manager Systems Innovation, Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), highlighted the need for skills to address the complex policy problems in STI, such as climate change, antimicrobial resistance or the adverse effects of industrial agricultural practices. He noted that technology alone will not solve those problems. Skills from a range of disciplines are consequently needed to develop technologies and diffuse them. Soft skills such as creativity, curiosity, mental flexibility, and the willingness to experiment also play important roles in this context
Tiina Hanhike, Senior Specialist, Ministry for Economic Affairs and Employment, Finland, presented Finland’s Digital Compass (2022), which is the country’s national strategic roadmap for succeeding in the digital transformation by 2030.
SKILLS REQUIREMENTS IN CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGIES FOR GREEN AND DIGITAL FUTURES
Digital skills are an important element of the roadmap The Do Digi Forum, a national platform with 37 members from different ministries, unions, business organisations, and educational sector organisations, was set up as a series of exchanges on policies to boost digital skills of individuals, SMEs and public organisations. On the basis of these exchanges, policy decisions are then taken such as improving matching mechanisms of companies’ needs with training provision. One pilot initiative originating from these exchanges has been the ‘Digital Agent for SMEs’, a business advisory service aimed at improving businesses’ digital capabilities by identifying employees’ needs regarding digital skills, providing training materials, and recommending digital tools and practices, targeted specifically to entrepreneurs and SMEs who typically lack time and resources to develop a digital strategy for their business, but may benefit from digitalisation.
Session 4. Breakout group discussions
The breakout groups deliberated on the role of STI policy for skills and capability development to advance on transitions, focusing on the following guiding questions:
• What is the state of STI skills and capabilities in the context of developing key technologies for transitions in your country?
• What works well, what are challenges from the perspective of STI policy?
• What is the role you play in this? What could be done to enhance that role?
The following issues were discussed included, first, that the specific skills needs and challenges differ, include the following:
• A low or declining engagement in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields among young people poses a challenge to the future supply of these vitalskills.ThischallengeissometimeslinkedtothewaySTEMsubjectsaretaught in schools, where teachers may lack the preparation to engage students in discussions about recent developments and provide motivation. Additionally, children from minority and disadvantaged socio-economic groups frequently encounter limited opportunities during their early years of education, resulting in lost talent (“lost Einsteins and Marie Curies").
• Transversal skills, including entrepreneurship and management skills, are needed to complement STEM skills when it comes to realising successful innovations. Targeted programmes to equip STI specialists with those skills are consequently in demand.
• There are contexts where STEM graduates are choosing careers in business consulting, finance, and medicine, which are often perceived as more appealing than research or innovation in the context of societal transitions.
• Some countries aim to fill their skills gaps through immigration policies, while other countries face skills gaps due to emigration. Where skills are in global demand, immigration policies targeting skills likely have limited impacts.
Second, boosting mobility between industry and academia is an important priority to mobilise skills distributed across these institutions The incentives set for researchers often do not reward temporal placements in industry while regulatory provisions challenge industry placements. Those, however, may provide for effective ways to pool diverse skills to engage in innovation for transitions.
Third, countries differed in their views on how much government intervention was needed: some countries argued to rely on adaptation processes through market dynamics regarding
