Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1312948
OPINION 26.11.2020 T he global workforce is to- day facing a critical peri- od of jobs and skills insta- bility. With a significant portion of today's jobs set to disappear or become displaced by Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics and automation, the world today re- quire a human workforce which possesses proficient digital skills. Based on such forecasts, the World Economic Forum (WEF) recently launched the 'Reskilling Revolution', aimed at providing better education, new skills and better work to a billion people by the year 2030. e Digital Skills 4 the AI Revolution (DS4AIR) project supports innovation through the design, development and evaluation of an online training course on Digital Skills because of the coming Artificial Intelli- gence Revolution (AIR). is is aimed at improving and extending the reskilling of vulnerable adults in the work- force who lack digital compe- tences. Consequently, this will future-proof their careers due to the expected demands in digital skills. It will also help to provide a new supply of tech-profession- als, especially since Europe is currently facing a shortage of 1 million employees specialised in digital technologies. In line with the WEF's initia- tive and as a proactive measure, the project will seek to: • Establish the AI readiness of business organisations. • Identify the gaps between the required new digital skills or competencies and the demands of the labour market, given the imminent AIR. • Create a learner profile of the course's target au- dience. • Design and develop an online self-paced training course on digital skills for the AIR. • Reskill vulnerable adults whose jobs are threatened by the new technologies, hence ensuring their sur- vival and prosperity in the job market. • Analyse the quality and impact (including the degree of satisfaction) of the course through a summative evaluation of the content and instruc- tional design, vis-à-vis the expected learning outcomes. • Draft a recommendations document on digital skills for corporate training. e project is driven by five European entities. e Malta Chamber of Commerce, En- terprise and Industry and the Valencia chamber bring their invaluable business and eco- nomic insights together with their extensive network of busi- ness affiliations. e other institutions can boast decades of experience in adult digital education and AI. is project is very much in line with the new €2.5 million scheme "Re-engineering Your Way To Success!" launched by the Malta Chamber and Malta Enterprise to help businesses restructure their business mod- els. e current pandemic was a big eye-opener for a lot of companies, but through these initiatives, difficulties are being turned into opportunities. e scheme will help busi- nesses analyse their business models as they embark on a restructuring journey to under- stand how they can grow more efficient and future-proof. e first activity to kickstart the DS4AIR project will take the form of a webinar entitled; 'e AI Revolution: A Reality or Myth?'. During such an event; policy- makers, tech experts, business owners, trainers and employees will share their views and dis- cuss the current status quo of the business industry. ey will then look into the required digital skills which will guarantee that businesses expedite their preparations to secure future successes. is is, of course, just the in- itial step, and in the following months, the activities will cen- tre around the compilation of the needs analysis. After that, the project will concentrate on the design and development of the online training course, with multiplier and training events aimed at re- ceiving valuable feedback from all stakeholders. e partners will then evalu- ate the online training course, through piloting with a group of vulnerable adults, whose jobs are threatened by the new tech- nologies. e resulting feedback will be used to draft a recommen- dations document, which will then be disseminated amongst learning and development pro- fessionals in various business sectors. In the end, the project is ex- pected to yield a high-quality digital learning environment based on the needs and re- quirements of vulnerable adults in today's workforce. It will also enhance the digital competencies of participating adults, thus improving their ca- reers' prospects. Participating businesses will be equipped in terms of skilled labour to con- tain the disruption brought about by emerging technolo- gies. ey will be better placed to understand, assess and act upon the reskilling require- ments posed by the foreseeable skills mismatch brought about by the AIR. In terms of the potential longer-term benefits, the on- line training course will be- come a valuable open educa- tion resource for re/upskilling for business and interested individuals around the world. Furthermore, the resulting recommendations document on digital skills for corporate training in the AIR will comple- ment the Pan-European policy efforts in the popularisation of digital competences by provid- ing evidence-based practice for future guidelines. e project is financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. Further de- tails about the first activity can be accessed from here https:// tinyurl.com/DS4AIR-1 Digital skills for the AI revolution Alexiei Dingli Prof Alexiei Dingli is a Professor of AI at the University of Malta and has been conducting research and working in the field of AI for more than two decades, assisting different companies to implement AI solutions. He forms part of the Malta.AI task-force, set up by the Maltese government, aimed at making Malta one of the top AI countries in the world