Gender, artificial intelligence and digital skills

The increasing trends of digitization and automation and the rapid adoption of new technologies are having a profound impact on the future of work. While past industrial revolutions have augmented human capacity and productivity, the world is leveraging technologies in ways that restructure how people are able to live and work around the world. New business models as well as changes in consumer behaviour and in the quantity, quality and physical geography of work are altering and creating new norms.

This changing landscape of work requires education and skills systems to adapt quickly to equip workers with the capacities for the advanced digital skills they need in the 21st century. To productively participate and support leadership in emerging tech spaces, the processes of learning and relearning, skilling, upskilling and reskilling must be continuous and lifelong as the world of work continues to evolve. Groups that are currently marginalized in the labour market, such as girls and women, not only face constraints in accessing education and skills training, they must deal with the fact that these learning systems are not always designed with their specific needs in mind. The result is that as technology alters labour markets, those unable to adapt are left behind, with the potential to exacerbate labour-market inequality.

This project will take stock of the digital skills needed to lead and guide the rapidly and continually changing labour markets in the Global South. It will map existing skills systems, including relevant policies and regulations, in several case countries. Finally, the project will conduct an audit of how education and skills-training systems, related policies and regulations cater to the needs of women and girls to take advantage of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and other skills.