Early Youth Education Guidance

1. Do Guidance professionals play a pivotal role in directing the digital upskilling of youths in the early secondary education system?
    
2. Should there be dedicated champions to guide youths in their early education to encourage and guide on the basic and advanced digital skills needed in their career?
    
3. Considering the importance of career guidance to youths, Are we doing enough to upskill career guidance teachers about the digital skills requirements in today’s workplace, education and society?
    
4. Are there enough exposure and engagement opportunities as part of the secondary level education curricula, to raise the interest of youths to upscale their digital skills?

Digital Upskilling of Graduates and undergraduates

1. Is enough being done to raise awareness in non-ICT disciplines for them to operate in modern work environments?  Digitalisation is pervasive in all workspaces from Hospitals to law firms, from the factory floor to marketing departments.

Youth Workforce

1. Does digital Upskilling amongst young professionals such as accountants, engineers and others, impact the future customer experience in the services offered by their future enterprise employers?

​Simply being a Millennial or a member of Gen Z is no guarantee that the digital skills in youth are up to scratch or at full potential.  The more a person knows about technology, the more attractive they become in career development and, hopefully, securing high-quality employment.  Digital literacy means empowering people with various technologies to think more creatively and easily learn to participate actively and successfully in their job role by using the existing and upcoming digital tools and devices.  The acquisition of digital skills, from basic to advanced, is a journey that should start from home and continue through their education, always upskilling from primary to further or tertiary education.

As young people prepare for the workforce, they should continually expand their knowledge of emerging technologies. This will help future employers consider them as being easier to train and re-skill throughout their employment.  Digital literacy policies and initiatives all have the aim of bridging the gap between digital skills in student life and the industry of today.  But are we doing enough?  Are we doing it right? How can we do it better?

There is no doubt that in today’s world, digital skills have become crucial for the development of youth.  The digital competencies in people will decide the level of success in their career, employment, and well being as a citizen. This discussion thread should give enough appetite to discuss youth upskilling and re-skilling in different countries and environments.

Please share your own experiences and thoughts in the comments below!