Changes in technologies, together with increased labor mobility and aging, have major impacts on jobs and skills. Asian Development Bank’s analysis of employment changes shows that while emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and robots displace jobs, it will not likely be pervasive in developing Asia as some predict. Rising domestic demand more than compensates for job losses associated with technological advances. However, new technologies cause firms and industries to alter skills requirements and adjust to new ways of producing and delivering services.

Developing Asia should respond to these challenges. This requires re-designing of the education and skills development system to promote skills like critical thinking, creativity, empathy, and complex problem solving. The question is how to develop these skills when many children in Asia are not able to master basic skills. Several recommendations are proposed for developing Asia. Since skills requirements are likely to change throughout one’s lifetime, enhancing learnability based on solid foundation skills should be key.  For this, governments should play an important role to create flexible and open learning environments and to establish lifelong learning systems going beyond school education and training.

Image