Building Competence for the Future of Work Through Informal Digital Skills Training

• By Oluwatosin Mayor-Olabiyitan and Oluwafemi Awopegba

Technology advancement is transforming how individuals, groups, and societies communicate, learn and work. This new socio-technical reality requires individuals to possess skills and abilities related to using technological tools and knowledge regarding the norms and practices of appropriate usage.

However, one’s ability to be an active citizen, a capable employee, or a competent student is increasingly compromised by a lack of digital literacy (Eric et al., 2013). According to González (2019), approximately 40% of employees are struggling to fill job vacancies due to a lack of necessary digital skills, while 30% of graduates are working in jobs where the skills they learned at university are not required. This skills gap could jeopardize the labor market’s stability.

The need to equip the future workforce to take advantage of the opportunities emerging within a technologically sophisticated economy has arisen due to worries about the need for more skills, understanding, and behaviors required to traverse the ever-changing digital landscape successfully. It was assumed that schools had a duty to help pupils become digitally literate citizens.

However, things have changed, and it is now recognized that all learning environments, both formal and informal (including the home and the workplace), are viable channels for ensuring that everyone is prepared for and continually upgrading their digital literacy abilities, understandings, and practices (Eric et al., 2013).

The distinction between formal and informal spaces of digital literacy is not meant to place one above the other; rather, we emphasize this to acknowledge that both formal and informal spaces can develop digital literacy for everyone.

Since most people only attend school for a brief period, formal education is by default limited in offering the comprehensive skills needed for the future of work, thus highlighting the need and importance of lifelong learning.

The importance of lifelong experiential learning has refocused attention on informal learning spaces to expand the concept of learning beyond classroom boundaries. Elaine (2013), In her article, revealed that informal learning environments do more than just “fill gaps” or make up for lack of formal instruction in terms of digital skill training.

Informal learning encompasses a complex interplay of people, geography, and technology and is about people’s ability to control their own growth (Elaine, 2013). Above all, digital skill training through informal learning can expand and supplement learning in academic and school environments.

How technology for Social Change and Development Initiative (Tech4Dev) is building the competence of youth for the future of work

To assess the requirements for building digital competence for the future of work, we gleaned some insights from a Tech4Dev intermediate training program in partnership with Footright organization in Kogi State, Nigeria. The program was tagged Digiyouth.

The Digiyouth Technology Skilling Program was specially designed to equip youths in Footright Organization with relevant and applicable digital skills (Data Science) necessary for entrepreneurship and the future of work.

Data science was chosen as it is one of the top high-paying technology skills in the world today. Tech4Dev’s role in the partnership was to design and implement the training, while Footright Organization mobilized the beneficiaries (148).

For the participants to be included in the intermediate program, they needed basic digital literacy (BDL) skills. According to the Tech4Dev skill-up theory of change, it is essential for those aspiring to take an intermediate course to be equipped with BDL skills.

Thus, as part of the application phase of the program, the basic digital literacy skills of the potential beneficiaries were tested via a knowledge-based assessment. The assessment results show that 103 (70%) were digitally literate.

We probed these findings to uncover possible insights behind the pass rate. During the application, 69% of the applicants who passed the BDL assessment indicated that they had previously participated in a digital skills program.

Also, of those who had been trained in BDL, 11% received their training primarily from the formal education system. In comparison, 89% of the participants admitted that they received their training primarily through informal platforms (e.g., self-taught, boot camp, on-the-job, etc.).

Although 79% of the applicants had at least a Bachelor’s degree and a STEM-related education, the above finding indicates that formal education is yet to significantly contribute to building young people’s digital skills for the future of work. More importantly, most people are taking recourse to informal means to prepare themselves for the skill demands of the current and future economy.

The manner in which the Digiyouth Technology Skilling Program was conducted revealed that self-motivation by the students is critical in building competency. The 30% who failed to meet the cut-off mark for the training were encouraged by the training providers to take a BDL course. The BDL course was offered to applicants who failed the BDL assessment to strengthen their digital literacy foundation, thereby boosting their chances of succeeding at the intermediate level.

However, of those who accepted to take the BDL course, only 37% were those who failed the BDL assessment. Furthermore, of those who took the BDL course, less than one-quarter passed and were consequently added to the set of participants in the intermediate course. Discussions with the training providers revealed that motivating the participants to commit to and complete the training was challenging. A possible reason for the low participation rate could be that the BDL training was self-paced, typically requiring learners’ strong interest to complete. Also, despite the support system provided, most of the beneficiaries lacked the desire to follow through on the training.

Conclusion

The study revealed that people need to engage in lifelong learning using the informal education channel to increase their competency because formal education is constrained in its ability to provide the comprehensive skills needed for the future of work. Thus, lifelong learning solutions must be developed. Learning digital skills has to be incorporated into teaching across various informal learning platforms and handled as a separate subject in formal education.

Furthermore, people aspiring for the future of work or desiring to transition into their much-desired employment will need basic digital literacy skills. This is because basic digital literacy skills will be needed to advance to other intermediate digital abilities to function successfully in their current position or future employment/ careers. It is also necessary for students and learners to be self-motivated in order to persist and study effectively in order to build the needed capacity for the future of work.

References

1. González Vázquez, I. (2019). The changing nature of skills and work in the digital age.

2. European Commission’s website, “Skills and qualifications”: https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1146

3. Eric M. Meyers, Ingrid Erickson & Ruth V. Small (2013) Digital literacy and informal learning environments: an introduction, Learning, Media and Technology, 38:4, 355–367, DOI: 10.1080/17439884.2013.783597

4. Tan, Elaine. “Informal learning on YouTube: Exploring digital literacy in independent online learning.” Learning, Media and Technology 38, no. 4 (2013): 463–477.