The World of Work in Digital Change

With regard to qualification requirements, it is essential to have a bundle of formal qualifications, competences and skills that clearly distinguish human labour from robots or programmed algorithms. To achieve this, it is necessary to have sufficient basic skills in literacy and numeracy. At the same time, maintaining employability also requires an effective training system for adults. In particular, low- to medium-skilled individuals come under great pressure from the changes on the labour market and need instruments of financial support while pursuing further education.

The Federal Minister of Labour, Social Affairs, Health and Consumer Protection, Brigitte Zarfl, also addressed the need to acquire new skills. She emphasised that the demand is directed towards competences that can only partly be achieved through traditional education path ways. In this context, more and more people are talking about "new collar jobs" that require specific qualifications in areas such as cyber security, data science, cloud computing or cognitive systems.

Further information on the final conference of the ÖGB danube@work project can be found here.