AI Can Help Universities Shape the Workplace
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
We are in the midst of a major shift in the nature of work around the world. Work, including our tools and routines, is experiencing enormous transformations, fueled most recently by the epidemic. The Great Resignation indicates a recognition that many jobs do not have a future and are not employing individuals’ abilities to their full potential.
Artificial intelligence and AI-assisted systems are approaching the point of altering or replacing jobs. The days of universities and colleges preparing students for 30 years in a single field with few changes in the work itself are long gone. Turnover is at an all-time high. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, wage and pay workers have had worked with their present employer for 4.1 years on average in January 2020. During the Great Resignation, that number is likely to have decreased much further.
We’ve all heard about the previous decades’ robotic revolution, in which assembly-line jobs were replaced by robotic assembly lines. This upheaval took a toll on a populace that was talented but not well-educated. Because “intelligent” robots could accomplish tasks faster, more reliably, and at a lesser cost to the company, human talents were no longer required. Now, Brookings warns that the future’s most susceptible employment will be in higher-paying, better-educated fields.
The study finds that individuals with graduate or professional degrees will be nearly four times as exposed to AI than workers with only a high school diploma.” Bachelor’s degree holders will be the
most exposed to AI, with more than five times the exposure of individuals with only a high school diploma.”
I know that a college diploma is much more than a trade school diploma that prepares a student for work. In today’s economy, however, it’s evident that students prioritize jobs, career growth, and career potential over all other forms of enrichment and perspective. “The world of work has changed,” says Jeff Selingo, “yet colleges, like businesses, are living in a new period.”
Colleges are finding it increasingly difficult to provide students with the vocational hard skills they’ll need to stay in almost any employment for more than a few years after graduation. The majority of college graduates spend their 20s going from job to job in order to enhance their education and gain new skills. And, ironically, job hopping is the fundamental reason employers are hesitant to invest in employees in the first place.” The advancement of less expensive, more flexible, and easily upgradable AI is feeding this reluctance to invest in new personnel.
The AI market is a response to shortages of competent personnel.. Employers will turn to AI if they cannot locate a sufficient supply of humans to suit their needs. The near-term future in this field, according to Boston Consulting Group, is to engage government, businesses, and higher education:
Governments should improve their education systems to avoid skill mismatches. They should refocus on meta skills and establish more flexible institutions that can foresee future business needs. Companies must invest in corporate academies, training alliances, and ongoing upskilling and reskilling of existing employees. They should also change their HR operations and processes to accommodate the new approach required to hire and retain personnel with the in-demand capabilities. Companies who invest in these technologies and make significant improvements to their operations will have a huge competitive edge over those who continue to use their current methods. Countries that use education to recruit businesses will gain a competitive advantage over their more static neighbors.
Both at colleges and in the workplace, continuing and professional education is prospering. Certificate programs have never been more popular. This isn’t happening in a well-planned manner. There is little hint of an organized, coordinated effort to identify developing and future demands, assign precise standards across industries, and subsidize quality programs to satisfy the economy’s shifting needs. Instead, individual universities and organizations are taking a more Wild West approach, developing their own entrepreneurial programs. Too few states or business entities are attempting to create a road map to address industry learning demands.
Meanwhile, artificial intelligence has the potential to change 500 million white-collar jobs in the next five years! The mismatch between higher education and industry will have a significant impact on graduates who have not been updated and upskilled for the rising economy. As degrees grow more outmoded and irrelevant, their credibility and perceived value will be diluted even further.
To face this challenge, we will need leadership from within and across institutions. A jumble of certificates isn’t helpful to students. To create effective learning paths that suit the demands of now and tomorrow, clarity and specificity in results, as well as clear links to viable employment, are required. To suit its needs, industry has already begun to develop its own educational systems. The Google Career Certificate program, in particular, has enrolled millions of people at a low cost.
If you work at a university, who is spearheading the charge to respond to our economy’s significant shift in learning needs? Can you help bring coherence and meaningful alignment to inter-institutional/industrywide standards for certificate programs in order to best address the needs of the burgeoning new economy?
Ⓒ The Big Game Hunter, Inc., Asheville, NC 2022
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a career and leadership coach who worked as a recruiter for more than 40 years. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 2300 episodes. He also hosts Job Search TV on YouTube, Amazon and Roku, as well as on BingeNetworks.tv for Apple TV and 90+ smart sets.
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