The digital skills crisis: engendering technology – empowering women in cyberspace

Type:

Document

Content Type:

Publication

Language:

English

Slug

english

Identifier

skpEng

Sources:

Experts from many international, regional and national agencies generously share their views, experiences and findings on skills, helping policy-makers among other stakeholders to understand the linkages between education, training and the world of work, and how to integrate skills into national development planning to promote employment and economic growth.

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skpOSource

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other-sources

Topics:

Anticipating and matching skills needs

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Anticipating and building skills for the future is essential to a rapidly changing labour market. This applies to changes in the types and levels of skills needed as well as in occupational and technical areas. Effective methods to anticipate future skills needs and avoid potential mismatches include: sustained dialogue between employers and trainers, coordination across government institutions, labour market information systems, employment services and performance reviews of training institutions.

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skpAFSN

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anticipating-and-matching-skills-needs

Digital skills

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The world of work is undergoing a substantial transformation due to new forces. In particular, technological advances, such as AI, automation and robotics, have produced numerous new opportunities, but also given rise to urgent challenges. While new jobs are constantly being created with the emergence of the digital economy, many jobs are at risk of becoming obsolete. Digital innovations will rapidly change the demand for skills, thereby creating a wider skills gap that has the potential to hold back economic growth. Equipping people with basic or advanced digital skills promises to prepare them for unprecedented job opportunities in the digital economy. This will lead to innovation, higher productivity and competitiveness, as well as expanding markets, access to work and entrepreneurship opportunities.

Identifier

skpdigskills

Slug

digital-skills

Knowledge Products:

Research papers

Working papers, reports, and other publications from international organizations, academic institutions and bilateral agencies. Research findings to stimulate informed debate on skills, employment and productivity issues.

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Identifier

skpRPS

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research-papers

Publication Date:

15 Sep 2021

Open

THE_DIGITAL_SKILLS_CRISIS_ENGENDERING_TE.pdf

This paper examines the latest research on the digital skills crisis, focusing on thefactors that contribute to digital exclusion. Through an extensive analysis of currentliterature on the digital divide, the authors discuss digital skills gaps, namely theexclusion of a sizeable part of the workforce from the digital market economy

— andwomen in particular. Studies indicate that exclusion from the digital market isaugmented and reinforced when combining the gender dimension with otherexclusionary factors such as disability, age, race and socioeconomic background.Research confirms that the gender imbalance in ICT and related sectors persists today,despite decades of equal opportunity policies, legislation and government initiatives.Women are still underrepresented and digitally excluded and efforts to attract, recruitand retain girls and women in ICT and STEM seem to be failing, reinforcing the gendergaps: participation gap, pay gap, and leadership gap, a result of the deep-rooted genderorder reflected in the latest Global Gender Gap Report and Index.

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