IT Skills Considered Most Important for Tomorrow’s Workforce According to Business Leaders


Increased technological capabilities such as IT, mobile computing and social media are considered to be the most important skills by far for tomorrow’s global workforce.

This was the result of a survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and GEMS Education asking 400 business leaders from the US, UK, China and Brazil to rank the important skills for tomorrow’s global workforce. Thirty seven percent of the respondents agreed on IT skills as the most important.

The survey was published at the World Economic Forum’s “Summer Davos” in Dalian, China.

The second highest priority was considered to be deep technical skills (specialist knowledge of the business) with 20 percent of business leaders polled ranking it as the most important skill for tomorrow’s global workforce. Emerging economies attached more importance to this skill than did the more mature ones. In China, 20 percent of business leaders considered deep technical skills to be the most important skill and in Brazil 32 percent of business leaders considered it to be the most important skill. However in the US, only 13 percent of business leaders considered deep technical skills to be the most important skill. And in the UK only 15 percent considered it to be the most important skill.

Dr. Manny Rivera, Chief Executive Officer of GEMS’ US-based Global Partnership Schools, said:

“We invited business leaders to rank what they considered the most important in the future: technological capabilities, multilingual capabilities, deeper technical skills, cross-cultural networking skills, autonomous work habits or a higher aptitude for innovation. The GEMS Education survey shows clearly that American business leaders, as well as those from other corners of the world, prioritize IT skills above any other skills for their future workforce. Governments need to take note of business leaders’ view of skills more than ever as there is a global skills race that is only going to get more competitive.”

Business leaders were also asked which strategies they should adopt to ensure they have access to the most suitable employees in the future. Chinese business leaders are by far the most likely to want to recruit from abroad with 22 percent saying that recruiting from abroad would be the most effective way of accessing suitable employees of the future. However, only nine percent of Brazilians consider recruiting from abroad to be the most effective way of accessing the most suitable employees whilst only five percent of US and UK businesses leaders consider recruiting from abroad to be the most effective way of finding the most suitable employees.

How about you? Are your skills aligned with tomorrow’s global workforce?

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