ABSTRACTS

by Michael Fung

The fourth industrial revolution is ushering in an era of rapid adoption of digitalisation of industrial sectors across the entire economy, and the underlying drivers are fueling dynamic changes in the nature of jobs, and the pace of skills obsolescence. The conventional paradigm of education is under heavy challenge, as the gap between the skills of graduates and industry needs is widening. A new model is needed across the education and training landscape, one that is more agile and adaptive, to ensure that the workforce remains employable, and for the economy to continue to grow. The SkillsFuture movement in Singapore is provided as a case study on how a nation is evolving towards a paradigm of lifelong learning, to respond to the opportunities and challenges brought about by the fourth industrial revolution and dynamic changes in the local and global economic landscape.

by Elizabeth King

This paper uses measures of cognitive and noncognitive (socioemotional) skills in an expanded definition of human capital to examine how schooling and skills are rewarded in the labor markets in nine middle-income countries and how skill differences relate to the gender gap in earnings. While years of schooling still explain more of the variation in earnings, cognitive and noncognitive skills determine earnings as well.  The earnings of both men and women benefit from noncognitive skills such as openness to new experiences and risk-taking behavior, but schooling and cognitive skills appear more important for women’s earnings at the lower and middle end of the earnings distribution.   

Based on a paper by Gunewardena, King and Valerio (2018)

by Arnulfo Azcarraga

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIRe) will lead to challenging scenarios for the Philippines in the coming decade or so. Not only will the manufacturing and service sectors be disrupted, but with mainstreamed AI, society at large will be affected; and this has far-reaching consequences. The way children learn, and even adults, will be very different. This is essentially driven by the fact that knowledge is now freely available on the Web, and that learners have learned to extensively use technology to collaborate, and learn together. Furthermore, scary as it may sound, intelligent digital tutors will at some point be viable replacements of the teacher (and the book) in schools and homes. At the same time, at a very different level, society would be turning to education and continuous training to look for suitable responses to FIRe’s major implications on the prospects for employment in the coming years. Schools, as early as in junior high school, may need to be re-structured, and their programmes re-oriented to better prepare students for a future that is predictably fast-changing, highly innovative, and creative; with data and knowledge as its lifeblood, and technology as its spine.

by Ma. Victoria C. Bernido

In this talk, we focus on how, through solid training and education, economically disadvantaged citizenry could diminish the dread of being swamped by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIRe) even as they seek to enjoy unprecedented benefits brought in by such wave of advanced technologies. We highlight the crucial policy choice of cost-effective efficient evidence-based educational programs suited to rapid population growth as well as constrained learning conditions. In particular, we look at real-world educational programs and curricula that could produce young people well equipped not only to face the challenges of FIRe but ready to use it for the advancement not only of self but community and the nation at large. We summarize our education perspective in WAATER: Wide-ranging Advanced Analytics Training and Education Reinforcement.