Revamp training systems to readily access jobs
The world is rapidly going through what analysts see as the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4-IR).
This is in the series of Industrial Revolutions, which started in earnest with the First Industrial Revolution which largely involved new manufacturing processes in Europe and the US from about 1760 Christian Era (CE) to 1820CE.
Some analysts, researchers and observers – including especially scientists, economists and other opinion-shapers – are of the view that we either already have had the Fifth Industrial Revolution (5-IR) thrust upon us, or we are on its cusp.
This roughly means that we are in the middle, caught in-between the Fourth and Fifth Industrial Revolutions.
Briefly put, the Third Industrial Revolution spawned the use of electronics and information-cum-communication technologies to automate industrial production. And the Fourth Revolution is building on the achievements of the Third one through the digital revolution, characterized by a fusion of technologies that blur the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres.
Compared with the preceding Industrial Revolutions, the Fourth Revolution is evolving at an exponential rather than a linear pace. In the process, it is disrupting almost every industry across the globe, with the breadth and depth of the changes heralding the transformation of entire production, management and governance systems.
One major consequence of this has been the replacement of human workforces with Artificial Intelligence ‘products and services’ – compliments of ‘smart technology and automation.’ Hence robots, self-driving cars, pilotless drones, automatic pilot tech on commercial planes...
But, analysts say that all this will change sooner than later. This will come about when the so-called ‘Artificial Intelligence’ facilitation must combine with human intelligence in order to keep the world away from the brink of self-destruction.
Humans must snatch the world back from robots
According to experts, the Fifth Industrial Revolution will indeed be about the integration of, and the partnership with, Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence. It is about understanding – and not fearing – the unique attributes that Artificial Intelligence has, such as non-bias, accuracy and data.
This is so that recruiters of workers and employers can make even better and informed decisions for their institutions, says Ryan Bridgman, the Jobrapido regional director for UK and Ireland.
‘Jobrapido’ is a jobs search engine that prides itself with the ‘mission to revolutionize the way people get jobs.’
We have gone to great lengths here to stress the dire need to seriously address the issues of professional and interpersonal skills now as we prepare to willy-nilly embrace the Fifth Industrial Revolution sooner than later.
In other words: we must recognize, accept and address/act on the impact of Artificial Intelligence and other digitisation monsters which threaten to relegate the human race to the backburner even as robots and other automatons take over the world’s day-to-day activities.
One surefire way of doing this in Tanzania is to revisit our education systems and training programmes, including especially vocational training.
The objective is to ensure that we fully and functionally equip our people with much-needed skills in the jobs market that is currently flooded with unskilled, unemployable ‘graduates.’ These are mostly youths, some 800,000 of whom are spewed onto the jobs market each succeeding year.
