In January 2020, the World Economic Forum announced an ambitious plan: the Reskilling Revolution aims to provide 1 billion people with better education, skills, and economic opportunities by 2030. With the collaboration of 50 CEOs, 25 ministers, and 350 organizations, the aim is to prepare companies and workers with the needed skills for a future where digital and AI (Artificial Intelligence) will become more and more prevalent.
While this project takes shape, the high pace of today’s digital transformation puts the entire world in immediate need of a skilled workforce. Under this aspect, Japan is facing some challenges: a society with a declining birthrate and an aging population means that the workforce keeps shrinking and the number of talented workers decreases year after year. In addition to that, according to the World Talent Ranking report released in December 2022 by IMD, Japan ranked last for the international experience of senior managers and 62nd for language skills among the 63 countries taken into consideration.
In order to keep up with overseas competitors, nearly half of the Japanese companies are showing interest in hiring foreign talents. In particular, IT and engineering companies rely more and more on workers from overseas, so much so that some even decided to make English the official language inside the office. However, attracting foreign skilled workers is not always simple. According to a Swiss survey, in 2022 Japan ranked 41st out of 63 companies in attracting talent.
Investing in skilled people and valuable workers also means investing in the value of a country. While 2030 might be just around the corner, Japan needs now to find efficient solutions to its problems, in order to keep up with the high-paced need for skills that the world is currently going through.
