ABSTRACT
The changes in the Fourth Industrial Revolution taking place today make it hard to tell what the workforce will look like in the future, what jobs will be in demand and how to prepare students for the yet-to-be-invented jobs. Thus, the study examines not only emerging skills and occupations, but also seeks to address ways to promote them. We ought to start difficult debates on how to support development of new skills for new jobs. This paper sets the groundwork for those debates and, in order to get us started on the right path, treats some of the proposals made in this area: for example, supporting life-long learning (inter alia by promoting MOOCs), upskilling and reskilling jobseekers, the establishment of bipartite training funds or standards-based educational reforms. Besides, initiatives such as supporting mobility, targeting female talent, cross-industry and public-private collaboration are under discussion in order to improve the future of workforce planning.
