Week notes: 26 June 2023

Late posting my notes this week. Very busy week.

⚡ A delegate at the Economist Enterprise Metaverse Summit in London this week asked a question which silenced the room and is still reverberating with me.

Right at the close of a panel discussion on ‘Cultivating Web 3 “Experience Economy” NextGen Digital Talent’, a student in the audience asked (paraphrasing):

‘What kind of jobs will there be, how can I find out about them, and what skills will I need to get them?’

Straightforward question. But it silenced the panel for a moment. The panel had been convened to discuss (quoting from the programme notes) ‘What skills do we need? How do we upskill and build the talent pipeline?’ But they had no very clear or useful answer to this delegate’s simple question.

Now, leaving aside the obvious criticisms here (of a community and industry sometimes unable, sometimes unwilling, to explain itself credibly), the question is challenging.

When technology advances quickly, remaking work and economies, how do we (individuals, groups, orgs, communities) determine the skills and capabilities needed to compete?

How can we acquire or develop them sufficiently well and quickly?

And where do we go for advice and guidance? If an expert panel can’t answer this simple question from a keen and engaged student, where to go?

There’s an unmet need here, which is becoming urgent — for individuals, orgs and society — as technology and jobs change rapidly while the economy overall continues to languish. 

The question has made me reflect on what a terrible job we are doing for young people (‘we’ here being educators and universities). The question demands we think about the kinds of alternative communities, entities, services and experiences needed to fill the void and enable young people in particular to find answers to the delegate’s question.

I’ll be thinking and writing more on this theme in future weeks.

[Picture shows a colour photo of cans of the Taiwanese soft drink Ocean Bomb in different flavours including orange, cider, blueberry, and melon. The cans feature artwork showing characters from the popular anime Dragon Ball Z.]