In an innovation economy, change is ever present and escalating. The most valuable knowledge and skills of today may soon be relics of a past workforce, replaced by new roles and capabilities we haven’t fully imagined. To explore rapid shifts occurring in the workforce and strategies for preparing talent for the future of work, a panel of industry leaders convened at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Innovate Carolina Junction for a conversation titled “Future Proof: Innovation Skills of Tomorrow.” Panel moderator Ursula Mead, CEO and Founder of InHerSight, led an interactive discussion with other experts in the field, including:
- Michael Hogan, Economic Development Analyst, Research Triangle Institute
- Watson Leffel, Senior Consultant, Future of Work Institute, Deloitte
- Geoffrey Roche, Director of Workforce Development, Siemens Healthineers
- Victor Sundararaj, Head of Education, Infosys
In part one of their discussion, the group explored talent-related shifts in the workforce. Find out what they had to say about demographic and economic trends, the credentials employers want employees to have, current and future skills gaps, which skills will be most valuable, and the steps you can take now to prepare talent for the future of work. Want to learn more? Read part two of the discussion.
1. Two-year degrees. Four-year degrees. Micro credentials and certifications. What do employers expect employees to have—and have the expectations shifted?
Michael Hogan: Based on workforce and business surveys in North Carolina over the last 10 years, we’ve looked at health care, local government, cybersecurity workforces and a number of different sectors. One thing that stands out is that four-year degrees are still highly valued, with one key caveat: employers are starting to look more for specialized skills. They want employees to have a “degree plus,” meaning a traditional degree, plus a specialized skill, certification or credential within their industry. This expectation is growing across different industries, whether it’s health care, tech, advanced manufacturing trades, energy, etc. These industries are rapidly incorporating new technologies because initiatives like digitization that existed before the pandemic went on a turbocharged path in 2020 with the adoption of technology in the workplace.
To illustrate the growth, cybersecurity professional associations that had 10,000 members 20 years ago have 500,000 members today. The idea of a cybersecurity job was something that people didn’t even think about very much 20 years ago. Now, cybersecurity is a valuable skill across almost every job you can imagine. So, there is still very high demand for all of our traditional four-year college degrees, two-year associate’s degrees and community college degrees. But now there is a growing demand for specialized credentials on top of those degrees.
Ursula Mead: We work with a lot of employers to help them find the talent they need. I’ve heard people say that we’re going to have a huge nursing shortage. People come to us all the time to help them recruit nurses, drivers and people with commercial driver’s licenses. These huge needs are coming to us constantly, and we just can’t get enough applicants for these roles. Cyber is something that comes up in our work constantly because there are a lot of people who are able to and want to work in cyber, but for the companies we work with, they can’t find women in those roles. Companies are facing a growing gender inequality and lack of representation specifically for women in those roles.
Victor Sundararaj: Knowledge and technology industries that depend on engineers have started hiring people with liberal arts backgrounds and grooming them for technical roles. We focus on skills versus degrees, and we on-board two-year degree holders as junior associates and developers. From a skills perspective, we look at competency development across different dimensions. For example, for coding or development skills, how can you apply those tech skills to different industry verticals or products? And as you grow in your career, how can you develop professional skills like project and program management alongside technical skills? We call it holistic competency development.
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