Based on his previous global studies, McKinsey produced a document entitled ‘ Skills of the future: Six approaches to close the skills gap, which aim to propose future skills solutions in Germany, which are not expected to have 700,000 people with technological skills soon. To this end, it looks at more than 30 digital skills initiatives addressing future skills both in Germany and around the world.
The document proposes methods that Germany can implement to close future skills gaps as quickly and as targeted as possible. According to the main findings, some progress has been made, but significant challenges remain in developing future skills needs: lack of transparency on future skills training opportunities; as current educational programmes do not address the needs of the future labour market, there is no future systemic structure for skills training.
It provides various examples of good practice from Germany and other countries, such as China, Estonia, Finland, USA, Singapore, and provides inspiration for six concrete approaches to reduce the threat of future skills shortages and address the three challenges identified: (1) a central online platform for future skills; (2) technology skills materials and concepts to be taught in schools and universities; The introduction of interdisciplinary educational concepts for schools and universities; 4) the creation of future competence research centres; Introducing new systematic initiatives for the training of future skills; Financial incentives to develop the future skills of enterprises and the self-employed.
According to this document, the implementation of these proposals is the efforts needed to permanently close future skills gaps, while the economic benefits of closing future skills gaps are estimated to be huge billions of euros.