GDB SOLUTION:

Answer.
For generations, we have spent the first third of our lives acquiring the college degrees we need
to find jobs. These degrees are the stamps on our professional passports that paved the way for
the remaining two-thirds of our journey. This implies that the nature of our work, along with the
skills and knowledge required to execute it, remains unchanged for a lifetime – which of course
is no longer true. While our parents likely held one job for life, most of us have had several – and
not just jobs but careers, too. Our children can expect to have many jobs and careers through
their professional lives – perhaps even at the same time, with the maturing of the gig economy.
Clearly, the future of work will not be about college degrees; it will be about job skills. Now is
our opportunity to steer those without college degrees toward successful careers and increase
diversity amongst our workforce.
According to the world economic forum, more than 1 billion jobs, almost one-third of all jobs
worldwide, are likely to be transformed by technology in the next decade. We are already seeing
this happen. Think of the service staff at your favorite restaurant taking your order on a tablet
that is connected to a central order-processing system back in the kitchen. The tablet must work
without glitches to keep the restaurant running smoothly. Think of the apps you use to shop,
track orders and simply stay informed. The store needs to keep them up and running at all hours,
day after day, all year round. And because every one of these stores collects and maintains
customer data that they study for trends – they need data analysts. They must also secure this
data, which means they must therefore run cybersecurity operations.
A degree no longer guarantees a successful career. Transversal skills are now also required, and
they are not necessarily certified by an academic qualification. The fact that companies
like Google, Ernst & Young and IBM have recently recruited candidates without academic
qualifications proves this point. And they are not alone: Apple, Starbucks and other American
companies have begun to realize that they need to diversify their workforces.