Daily Times

Coursera’s latest Global Skills Report (GSR) 2022 reveals insights that will help Pakistan focus on skills development. The Report is divided into three categories: Business, Data Science, and Technology. The skill sets of counties in these three categories are highlighted in four sections: Cutting Edge, Competitive, Emerging and Lagging. In the Business category, UAE leads the Cutting Edge category followed by Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, USA, Qatar, Denmark, Cameroon, Germany, and Saudi Arabia. Republic of Korea, Mauritius, Serbia, China, and Cyprus are the top five countries in the Competitive class. Pakistan leads the Emerging section in the Business category. It is followed by Thailand, Kenya, Jordon, and Romania. However, Estonia leads the Lagging section in the Business category followed by Peru, Bolivia, Somalia, and Ukraine. Brazil is in tenth place.

Interesting stats are observed in the Data Science category. In the Cutting Edge section, Indonesia leads the list followed by Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, and Belarus. Japan is in tenth place. In the Competitive class, the Republic of Korea is in the first place followed by Mauritius, Serbia, China, and Cyprus. France, Japan, and Ghana are in the eighth, ninth, and tenth spots respectively. The Emerging section in the Data Science category is led by Columbia followed by Georgia, Costa Rica, Turkey, and Romania. Mexico is in tenth place. Azerbaijan, however, leads the Lagging section followed by South Africa, Pakistan, Honduras, and The Philippines. Lebanon and Qatar take the ninth and the tenth spot.

High-performing organisations have been reported to focus on employee training and development, profitability, business franchise expansion, adaptation and organizational agility and regulatory/environmental compliance.

Lastly, in the Technology category, Indonesia is leading the Cutting Edge section followed by Belarus, Japan, Denmark, and Kazakhstan. Ukraine, Poland, and Finland take the last three spots in the list of ten. In the Competitive section, Israel holds the top spot followed by Austria, Brazil, Hungary, and Uruguay. Cyprus and Latvia are the last two. Columbia is the leader in the Emerging section with Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, and India following behind. In the Lagging section of Technology, Egypt holds the first place followed by Bolivia, Myanmar, Uganda, Trinidad and Tobago.

When comparing the 2020 Report with that of 2022, it is revealed that employees are less confident that their organizations will facilitate them in skills development. The Report suggests the term “new skilling,” which refers to continuous learning to develop high-demand skills. This focuses on the individual to upskill current capabilities or pursue reskilling to build new capabilities. The Report also revealed high-performing organizations focused on employee training and development, profitability, business franchise expansion, adaptation and organizational agility, and regulatory/environmental compliance. An interesting trend was also observed by the 2020 Report when the employers were asked about their most urgent concerns in the next three years (2023). 48 per cent thought there will be a skill and talent shortage, 44 per cent believed they would need to catch up to the speed of digital transformation while 44 per cent were concerned about data privacy and security. Only 16 per cent were concerned about geographical tensions impacting their business while 35 per cent were anxious about diversity and inclusion. 24 per cent were worried about a lack of insight into people’s data. Moreover, when asked about the time frame when employers will invest in skill development, 32 per cent were certain to invest in the next three years while 30 per cent wanted to do it the next year.

The writer is an independent researcher, author and columnist. He can be reached at omariftikhar@hotmail.com and tweets @omariftikhar