The Malaysian Insight

LEADERSHIP, creativity and problem-solving will still be sought-after skills by employers in the workplace of the future, despite the hype surrounding the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0).

Senior executives of top tier firms told a public talk on IR 4.0 today that such soft skills were essential for graduates, even with the increasing emphasis on information communication technology (ICT).

The sober reminder from bosses at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Malaysian Banking Bhd (Maybank) comes as public debate rages about the skills mismatch between employers and graduates.

https://www.nst.com.my/education/2018/10/417327/graduate-skills-gap

Salika Suksuwan of PwC said despite the surging dependency on artificial intelligence (AI) and robots in workplaces, people were still needed to manage and guide these tools.

“Leadership, adaptability and creativity are still important skills for us,” said Salika, PwC’s human capital executive director.

“We tell our talents that you have to be able to understand and use robots but you are not to be like them,” Salika told students, lecturers and school administrators of INTI International University Subang today.

Salika was part of a panel discussion, which follows the launch of a study on IR 4.0 and graduate readiness by market research firm IDC and INTI University.

Also on the panel were Maybank head of innovation Amran Hassan, Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) research unit head Wong Chan Wai, INTI acting chief executive officer Tan Lin Nah and IDC (Asia-Pacific) research manager Jensen Ooi.

The study had surveyed 560 INTI students, parents and graduates on their perception of IR 4.0.

 

Instead of focusing solely on ICT courses, such as programming, colleges should make it mandatory for students of all fields to have a basic familiarity with technology, said Salika.

“(Not everyone should) focus on IT, but all students, whether they are studying business, human resources, accounting or law, should have a basic grasp of AI and analytics.”

Amran said instead of displacing traditional corporate roles, such as human resources, accounting and marketing, IR 4.0 has instead broadened them.

“These jobs are still important in tomorrow’s workplace. Colleges should also continue producing specialists, such as in finance, accountancy and coding, who have a deep knowledge of their fields. But they should have an overlay of basic tech skills,” Amran said.    

Among the study’s findings were:

* That 31.1% of INIT’s students did not know what IR 4.0 was, while another 31.7% had heard of the term but did not know about it in detail. About 31.1% had a limited understanding of the term and only 6.1% said they could explain it.

* About 29.9% of INTI students said they were not ready to join the IR 4.0 workforce while 28% said they only had academic training. About 42.1% said they were either fully capable, had some work experience or had taken short courses on IR 4.0. – August 15, 2019.