82 presented study included interviewees from the Netherlands, Canada, Finland, Germany and the UK.
These above-outlined limitations should be taken into account when considering the validity of the
findings.
83 Today, many people are afraid that they will run out of work due to drones, computers or robots. A lot of people fear robots taking over, so that they will be losing their jobs. Fears of one’s own economic dependence play a role as do mistrust of a confusing world economy or the rapid development of information technologies (Botthof & Hartmann, 2015).
It is argued by experts that it is typical for technological progress that such concerns and conflicts arise and that this is repeatedly happened in history, when technological revolutions arose (1#18, 1#21, 5#4). Robots might take away some jobs, but new ones will be developed, as well. Neither job is replaced 1:1 by machines, and every technological advance causes shifts.
Rather than fearing to be replaced by robots, workers need to continuously acquire new skills and capabilities in order to function creatively in a manufacturing environment that innovates not just on the R&D side, but in the whole manufacturing network. The goal must be to augment work, and for humans to work side by side with robots and to improve productivity and enrich the workplace.
In order to realize the potential of AI and other technologies, people have to be inspired for a better future with AI and need to be convinced that robots and machines will be able to relieve the work that humans usually do not appreciate. Ultimately, humans are not good machines, and machine activities performed by humans rarely create the feeling of a meaningful task. Instead, the focus should be laid on those skills, in which humans are particularly good – creativity, intuition and interpersonal interaction. Creating this freedom provides great potential for AI and machine learning.
Through technological advancements, companies have to adapt to institutional changes and the environment. An open mind-set and will towards change are prerequisite, and everyone should adapt to different kind of changes (4#2, 1#18). It is not only the question about job loss, more or less needs to be an answer how to re-train those that will lose their job and giving them perspectives. Ideally, the reaction of special training requirements and life-long learning, as well as up-skilling programs can hinder the job-loss of affected employees (1#24).
There are many challenges posed by digital technologies. For instance, it has to be ensured that humans are a priority (5#4) in all of the phases of the technology design and in the way, in which they are used at the workplace. Moreover, it has to be ensured that the necessary training is available (4#27). This guarantees that workers have life-long learning opportunities and get the opportunity to re-train the skills needed to use these technologies, and do not just replace robots and other forms of new machines. To sum up, if society is accepting technology as support and not as a threat, a
“normal” handling of technology could be realised (1#24).
84 7.3 Necessary Changes in Education
A second priority should be the introduction of necessary education changes, in order to create a successful future work environment, where human and machine-based skills can complement each other.
Transformations in society, culture, economy, politics and employment require humans to fundamentally rethink how education is perceived and organized. The current young generation is described as “digital natives”, and is used to combine the offline and online world – why not implementing this in the university life and creating a future-based learning system?
More precisely, the educational system has to change in several perspectives: more future skill-based teaching is needed, combined with new teaching formats and digital expertise, and updated professorships, as well as a new architecture of the university hall (Fries, 2018). Education is going to incorporate competitive skill-based learning and deep learning competencies, like creativity and critical thinking. Decision-making capacities, interpreting data, and skills for interacting with others through emotional intelligence and empathy have to be imparted (ibid.).
Through global networking of knowledge resources and new communication channels via the internet, access to knowledge and education is facilitated. New forms of collaborative working and study-centred learning require students to assume greater responsibility for learning processes and open up opportunities for co-designing teaching, while at the same time promoting flexibility and self-discipline. As with all other media, digital formats also need to be mindful of the cognitive, social, and emotional foundations of learning, if they want to support and encourage learning (ibid.).
How education systems can be prepared sufficiently for this challenge will become a central question for politicians and companies. Education also determines future skills in dealing with AI, i.e.
productivity and resilience of the labour market.
Every individual is asked to commit to this change, but so is politics. The improvement of education, training systems and optimization of the concrete application of skills and learning processes in the workplace are recommended. The aim should not be to increase opportunities for short-term employment, but to give people a long-term perspective on the future labour market. Innovative approaches can be institutionalised through training practices or individual "learning accounts".
Concepts like online teaching, extra courses for digital understanding and data literacy, as well as
interdisciplinary collaborations with research institutions could be efficient.
85 The change must be set much early and already begin in school education. In addition to schools and educational institutions, industry can also contribute to their promotion, for example within the framework of initial and continuing vocational training.
But what does all of this mean for the competences described above? First of all, it should be clear that a high general level of education across the students should be ensured by the general school system. The gaps that have arisen cannot be closed by initial and continuing vocational education and training, or only with disproportionate effort. The division of tasks between vocational and general education proposed above should not be dogmatically understood. Thus, a foundation of social competences (interpretable as "social general education") has to be imparted already in school education. This has to go along with a reform of the educational system: the educational institutions are responsible to re-thinking curricula, inventing new teaching and exam formats, and implementing creative learning spaces.
In the recent debate, the support of STEM education is in the focus (Holloway et al., 2019). Yes, knowledge of technical skills and having a digital basic level becomes a key resource of the digital society in times of information overabundance. Only those who are able to interpret information and data, and combine them with contextual and experiential knowledge, will be able to make a valuable contribution to a digitised knowledge society. But machines will not be able to take over the interpersonal interaction, whereby soft skills, empathy and creativity make the difference. This could involve redesigning curricula in such a way that pupils acquire competences above all in areas where people retain a comparative advantage over machines, computers or algorithms. Less memorization of facts and repetitive standard procedures, but more promotion of creativity, social interaction and human empathy must be taught. According to the findings, soft skills are the new currency of the 21
st
century (2#12, 2#16, 5#19, 4#27). Having the STEM education on the one side, social sciences have to get the attention in the digital age, as well (Holloway et al., 2019).
According to the research, technical bottlenecks are in the following areas, among others: Creative-intelligent activities such as the ability to link knowledge, information and ideas and to create something new from them, as well as socially-intelligent activities such as collaboration with others – also in virtual teams and with different cultures; finally empathy and emotional intelligence.
Companies therefore need more and more people who are able to bring knowledge together and are not desperate to maintain their status or prefer to collect, rather than share knowledge (2#12).
Hence, people who can also question their own views resolve conflicts and argue objectively. People
86 who are willing to cooperate and have the ability to engage with others will be of crucial importance;
so, will be people who are able to organise themselves optimally under increasingly flexible working conditions (1#17). Moreover, social and personal competence are becoming more important than ever before.
Education has to adapt to the 21
st
century and must open up traditional, outdated teaching and
learning sessions. It is time to upgrade learning for the digital age and for using technologies to foster
successful education of digital skills. The present research shows the importance of human abilities
and soft skills, and education has to concentrate on teaching those skills and offering platforms,
where communication training, emotional intelligence and teamwork can be reinvented.
